Smooth Criminal
by Peter the Otaku
Summary: When you live life as a thief sometimes things get complicated. When your best friend is an assassin for the Shadows and your boyfriend is a hero... things just got a heck of a lot more complicated. RoyxOC. Rating subject to change.
1. Crescendo

**Disclaimer: Sadly for me I do not own Young Justice for if I did I would clone everyone and share... just not the originals... they're mine. XD**

**I want to give a big thanks to my BBFL Trina(Which is not a screen or pen name) for reading this over and editing it for me even though she has yet to watch the series and had little idea what I was talking about. Trina you're the greatest! (Don't worry guys I'm in the process of converting her!:D Enjoy!**

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><p>The alarms of the Star City Museum of Ancient History were shrill and obnoxiously loud for so late in the evening, but it was notifying the authorities of the crime that was taking place in the building, or rather the crime that had taken place moments prior. Already the dark clad perpetrator was darting across the roof of the building, feet moving quickly and soundlessly across the illuminated glass ceiling.<p>

The dark figure, a phantom known only by the name of Spade, didn't even momentarily slow her pace as she approached the edge of the building. Instead she took a running jump and it almost looked as if she was flying across the gap between the buildings as she had been on to the one adjacent to it. There was a story and a half difference in height so when she landed she had to roll to lessen the impact but not seconds later she was back on her feet. Narrowly, he had avoided becoming a pin cushion as several long arrows lodged themselves into the concrete surface where she had just been.

There wasn't even a slight hesitation, not even a single faltering step from the thief. Not even when she saw an arrow with green fletching sail aver her head did she stop, despite the fact that when it landed in front of her it exploded into a cloud of thick black smoke.

Spade dove right into the haze, taking a deep breath before she did and seconds later she jumped out of the other side of the cloud with her hand over her mouth and nose which were already covered by a partial black mask. Now she risked a short glance behind her. Green Arrow and his red clad apprentice, Speedy, were close on her tail as she nimbly hoped from building to building.

Another arrow was fired, this one courtesy of Speedy and as it got closer to her it was clear that this was another trick arrow because a moment later a net shot from the head of the projectile and wrapped around her legs as she began another leap. As the net caught around her legs she stumbled and the usually silent thief let out a cry of surprise as she tumbled off of the side of the building she had been trying to jump from.

From the very top of the building the fall to the ground was at least twelve stories down and Spade knew that if she hit the ground she'd either be a sitting duck to be caught, or a pancake on the side of the street. Yes, getting caught by a pair or goody two shoes heroes would be the least of her problems if she hit the ground. Halfway through the fall she reached out and managed to catch onto a ledge of a window and felt her right shoulder painfully pop. She had just dislocated her shoulder.

"Ready to give up yet?" Green Arrow called from the top of the building where he was observing her predicament.

Spade's red tinted eyes narrowed when she saw him and held in a groan of pain as her fingers slipped a little and jolted her shoulder. She couldn't hold on for very much longer and she needed a way out of this mess that she had gotten herself into. She had never done so badly on a job before. Usually she was able to get away before any of those pesky Justice League heroes were able to find her.

"Why bother talking to her. She never says a word!" Speedy snapped already aiming an arrow at her and suddenly an idea formed in her head.

"What's wrong Speedy!" She called making sure her voice was an octave lower than usual so they wouldn't recognize it. "Upset that you've been beaten by a little girl more times than you can count?"

The subtle clenching of the young archer's jaw was all the warning she needed before he loosed the arrow. It was exactly what she'd wanted him to do. Flipping as best she could with her injured shoulder she moved so her tied legs so that the arrow tore through the netting and leapt up onto the ledge she's been hanging off of. There were several curses above her but she didn't have time to sit and gloat.

She took off across the ledge and jumped to the next building, clinging there for only a moment before she launched herself back to the first structure, lower this time. She went back and forth between the buildings, repeating the process until she was safely on the ground then disappeared into a nearby alleyway before the two archers got to the street.

Knowing that they would be coming after her, Spade ducked into the back door of a steamy Chinese restaurant and skirted through the kitchen as quickly as she could. Several people shouted at her about being in the kitchen, still more stared at her wide eyed when they realised she had a gun on her hip. She never used the weapon, her skill was primarily in stealth and speed, but one never knew when such a weapon might come in handy.

As soon as she was clear of the rush of employees and various trays or sweet and sour pork, lo mien, and teriyaki dishes, she darted into the bathroom, locking the door behind her and sliding to the floor with a loud sigh. Her shoulder was killing her; she'd need help to realign the joint, but before that she needed a plan of action before the arrow duet caught her.

~O~

"Where'd she go!" Speedy growled as he watched the front entrance of the little Chinese restaurant that they had watched Spade run into. Green Arrow was watching the shop from the back, but so far no one had left the restaurant. At least as far as they knew no one matching Spade's description had, and she would be hard to miss with her mop of short white hair.

"Be patient Roy, we saw her go in. There are only two exits and she has to come out some time." Green Arrow told him over the comlink that they both had equipped.

Speedy grumbled something under his breath, but didn't complain any more. Ten minutes later there was still no sign of Spade. Speedy tensed when he saw the door to the restaurant open, but there was no black-clad thief. Only two teenage girls dressed in light summer clothing laughing at something one of them had said. He watched them hail a cab from the sidewalk then disappear.

~O~

"That was way too close." Jade sighed glancing over to her friend who was hunched over in her seat, forehead against the window, clutching her arm in pain. The red eyes that could be identified with Spade were gone, as was the white hair. Instead her hair was black and short cropped and dark green eyes were looking back at the half Vietnamese girl while a small smile lit up her face.

"Hey I got away didn't I?" She asked glancing to the plastic partition between them and the cabbie to make sure it was closed and he couldn't hear what they were saying.

"If the Shadows find out you needed my help-" Jade began but she was interrupted.

"The Shadows can kiss my ass. I told you before that I'm not doing this for them. I need the money and this is the best way for me to get it."

"Victoria you could be killed if they heard that." Jade warned seriously.

"They wouldn't; aside from you, I'm the best at what I do." Victoria, known better as Tori, scoffed.

Jade gave a grin that could have rivaled the Cheshire cat for which she was named on the job and motioned to the cabbie to pull over. They paid the man then got out and ran to the apartment building across the street. It was beginning to rain and Tori had no desire to add sickness to injury.

Tori's apartment was far from luxurious, it was more of a small dingy box with a separate bedroom, bathroom and kitchenette from the den, but it was by far better than living on the streets. She sank into the old worn couch in the tiny central room that she used as a living room and groaned in pain.

Jade walked over and grabbed her arm with one hand, the other placed firmly on her friend's shoulder. They had gone through this process a few times before, Tori's arm often bothered her, and neither needed words to be exchanged. With a slight twist on the arm, the woman's shoulder popped back into its socket and Jade stepped away so Tori could work through the pain by rolling her shoulder. It would probably have been best if they had gotten a proper doctor to realign her arm, but that would just raise questions that could not be answered.

"So let's see the loot." Jade said as Tori pulled off the jacket she had been wearing when they left the restaurant to reveal the tight black shirt she wore on jobs. Her wig and contacts were tucked into an inside pocket.

Tossing the jacket aside she reached into one of the various pockets in her cargo pants and withdrew a long silver chain. At the end of the chain was an Ankh pendant that sported a ruby the size of a large golf ball. Jade whistled, clearly impressed.

"The Amulet of Anubis. They had you get something really valuable this time. Usually you only take the smaller jobs." She leaned back into the couch and kicked her feet up onto the coffee table.

", well I just hope that the pay is worth nearly getting caught." Tori said as she put the stolen Egyptian artifact back into her pocket. It would go into the safe in her room along with the majority of her valuables until it came time to deliver it.

"What are you going to use the money for? I hope you put it toward getting a new apartment. With the cash you'll be getting you should be able to afford a nice place on the upside of town."

"Not likely, Jade. I'm perfectly happy here in my rundown little box. It's less suspicious and besides, I need some work done on my arm." She indicated to her left arm, the one that was not injured. It looked just like her other arm but both girls knew it was far from a normal arm. Underneath the thin layer of what looked like skin was a mass of metal, wires and cords that made up a fully functional prosthetic arm. There were tiny wires and other mechanical junk that connected the arm to the nerves on the stump that had once been her shoulder. It was just as good as a regular arm, aside from the occasional maintenance and the fact that the operation required to get such an arm was illegal.

"You just got that thing looked at two weeks ago! I still think you should get a nice new pad. Then we could have parties with rich guys every weekend." Jade said with a sexy grin on her face.

Tori only sighed. "Jade you have an apartment close to that side of town. Why don't you throw a party there?"

"That's actually not a bad idea Tori. I actually know some people who could get the socialites to come."

"Jade I wasn't serious!" Victoria exclaimed exasperated with her best friend. "If you do that we might as well walk right up to the Justice League and tell them our secret identities!"

"God, you're so over dramatic." Jade laughed waving off Tori's concern as if it was nothing at all."It's just a party. It's not like we're planning to infiltrate the League or anything."

Another sigh came from the other girl and she got off the couch to walk over to her little kitchen. She opened the fridge door and after rummaging through it for a little bit until she pulled out two cans of soda from the back somewhere. She tossed one to Jade as she walked back to the couch and crashed on it unceremoniously.

"Come on Tori. It'll be great; Food, dancing, cute boys... you really need to take a night off and just relax."

"This coming from a top class assassin?" Tori said with a bemused smile on her face as she watched her friend skeptically, but she could feel her resolve crumbling already. She never could say no to Jade and the other girl was an expert at persuading Tori into doing some incredibly stupid things. Depending on the situation it sometimes worked out great, but often it ended in total disaster. Finally though, she gave in to the idea.

"Fine Jade, do what you want. But if we get busted because of this I hope you know it's all on you." She said sternly.

~O~

Tori knew she was going to regret the decision she had made to help Jade out with her party. Between her normal day job of counselling kids at the local community center, her secret second life, and various other things she hardly had time to sleep let alone help Jade with planning a party fit for Star city's rich and famous. And that was exactly what Jade was going for.

Tori tried to make sure her best friend didn't get too out of hand but if there was one thing Jade loved more than her job it was partying. It really shouldn't have surprised her at all that the assassin would try to go all out on something so trivial. It was exasperating to watch Jade flit about all the time but what annoyed her most was when, on the night of the party, Jade tried to persuade her into a tiny white dress. Jade herself was already wearing a short, emerald green, Asian styled dress with a gold and black dragon snaking up the side.

"Just put the dress on Tori." Jade said holding up the garment.

"And let every guy here get a good look under that tiny skirt? No way." Tori shook her head and crossed her arms over her chest which was bare save for her undergarments. She glared vehemently at the article of clothing, which could hardly be considered clothing at all.

"You're such a prude. If you want to pick up a cute guy this is the kind of thing you have to wear." Jade said and Tori had a feeling that Jade was either extremely wrong in what she had said or she was trying to make wearing the dress seem more appealing. Either way, though it didn't work. She was going to open her mouth to argue but a knock on the front door interrupted her.

"Get dressed Tori! People are arriving and unless you want to dance in your birthday suit I suggest you put that dress on!" It wasn't an idle threat, Jade really would drag her out there nude if she didn't do as she was told.

She groaned, picking up the dress as Jade left the bedroom and pulled it over her head. She had to walk over to the mirror to get a good look at herself and when she did she wrinkled her nose at her appearance. She looked like a whore. The neckline of the skin-tight halter dress was, at the very least, plunging and the skirt hardly covered her butt. She scowled at herself some more then glanced back at Jade's large walk in closet. At the very least she was going to make the dress look less slutty.

After five minutes of searching through various different kinds of clothing and almost cutting open her hand on ninja and assassin tools, Tori emerged from the closet and paused in front of the mirror again. While in the closet she had donned a black, corset like top over the dress so her chest was less exposed and had put on a pair of dark colored leggings under the skirt. She had also swiped a pair of Jades boots and a belt to accessorize. It still wasn't something Tori would have worn of her own choice but this was going to have to do. Besides, with her makeup and hair already done up she did look pretty good.

A knock came to the bedroom door and Tori looked away from the mirror as Jade walked back in. The assassin whistled. "You clean up nice... are those my boots?"

Tori rolled her eyes and went to the door to leave the bedroom. Already the central living room area, which was large enough anyway, was crowded with people. Tori recognized several people who she had seen on tabloids of in magazines, not to mention all the teenage socialites that were milling about dancing to the beat of some main stream pop song that was blaring out over the speakers or else at the edge of the room talking with one another. She had been alone in the bedroom for less than ten minutes, how had so many people gotten here so fast?

A hand closed over Tori's arm and she allowed Jade to drag her into the middle of a group of dancing people. Soon enough Jade was swept away by the crowd and was talking earnestly with a rather handsome boy as they danced together. Tori almost envied Jade, she was able to blend in and adapt to any situation she was in, it was a given for her to be an assassin. But Tori was totally out of her element. She was used to blending in with the shadows, sneaking past people unnoticed.

Dancing soon lost its appeal and the dark haired girl left the space of floor which had been cleared for dancing and melded into the shadows along the wall and just watched people. Of course she wasn't able to go totally unnoticed and several girls paused to gossip even though they had never met her before. A couple of men tried to hit on her as well but she just turned them down. If she had been looking to pick up someone like Jade was she would have worn the dress as it originally was.

As she watched she couldn't help but come to the conclusion that she really didn't like the life of the rich and famous... or at least the parties. Everyone seemed so shallow, trying to keep up appearances and never really saying or doing anything that could get them ousted from their position. It was almost worse than living in the slums when she was a kid and living with her Dad.

A frown worked its way onto her face as the thought of her father crossed her mind. She hardly thought about that swine anymore; as far as she knew her old man was dead. And good riddance to him too, she'd hated him since before she could remember, she didn't have one good memory of him and she would prefer to keep it that way; a good memory would only cause her to sympathize and she was not going to do that any time soon.

A presence suddenly came close to her and she looked up to see a red haired boy leaning against the wall next to her. He didn't seem to be interested in hitting on her, in fact, like her, he seemed to be content to sit and watch the party progress with a slight frown on his face.

"You dragged here by your friends?" She asked conversationally. There would be no harm in talking with him she decided; besides, if Jade saw her sitting here all night she would be in so much trouble.

The boy looked over at her from the corner of his eye and she couldn't help but notice that he had very serious, yet striking blue eyes. Come to think of it he was pretty attractive as a whole. He had a nice physique from what she could determine and his face was rather attractive despite his frown. She fought back a blush and looked away from him when he nodded.

"You?" he asked. It sounded as if he too was just making conversation and didn't care one way or another. It didn't really bother Tori at all but she kind of wished he could pretend to act interested in the conversation, as short as it was.

"My friend is hosting it. I'm only here to make sure things don't get out of hand." She replied and pointed in the direction of Jade who was managing to flirt with two boys at the same time. "My name's Victoria, friends call me Tori."

"Roy." He offered and Tori felt a smile creep onto her face. Roy... somehow it seemed to suit him very well. "You really put up with this?"

"Not really... I'm kind of waiting for my chance to slip out of here without anyone noticing." It was kind of true. Jade would notice if she left and probably send out a squad of ninja to bring her back or something. And she would never live it down unless she had a very good reason for leaving.

"She has her back turned now." Roy pointed out and Tori raised an eyebrow.

"And leave you here all by your lonesome? That would be cruel." She said and she could have sworn she saw a ghost of a smile cross his face. "How about we both leave? Not to seem like I'm using you or anything but if she sees me leave with a guy she'll be more inclined to forgive me."

Roy shrugged and pushed off of the wall, motioning with his head for her to follow him. Somehow they both managed to weave through the crowd of bodies and find the way to the front door. As soon as it closed Tori let out a breath and ran her hand through her hair. The light in the hall was blinding compared to the inside of the apartment but she'd dealt with worse before.

"Elevator is this way." She said pointing in the proper direction. Roy nodded and followed they got halfway there when a voice called out to them.

"Tori... Where exactly are you going?" Jade asked, hands on her hips as she surveyed the two. Tori was at a loss for words, unsure of what to say when to her surprise she felt a warm arm wrap around her waist.

"I hope you don't mind if I steal your friend for a bit. We were just going out for a bit of air." Roy said and the way he spoke it made it sound as if they were going out for a lot more than air. Tori couldn't stop her face from going red this time as she felt Jade's stare on her now.

Jade eyed them for a moment longer then grinned at her friend. "Well I suppose... but Tori, I expect details." And with that she turned and walked back into the party.

Tori stood frozen for a moment longer, then cleared her throat and moved away from Roy who let his arm fall to his side. "Thanks." She said looking at her feet before she started heading to the elevator again. As far as she could tell Roy made a non-committal noise and followed. Once they were safely in the elevator she chanced a look at him again. His face was still as stoic as it was when she had first spoken to him.

"So where did Mister Smooth come from back there?" She asked when she had gotten over the butterflies that had settled in her stomach when he put his arm around her.

This time Tori was sure she saw him smile for a second. "It's not something I do often." He replied and left it at that. Tori wasn't really sure she was inclined to pester him more about it. After all, he was practically a stranger, albeit a very handsome stranger that made her stomach do weird aerobatics when her came close.

The elevator dinged, signaling that they had reached the lobby and they both stepped out, heading for the front entrance. Tori wanted to do nothing more then go back to her apartment and go to sleep so she didn't have to think about the strange feeling in her stomach. Maybe she was sick.

"Again, thanks for helping me out." She said when they got outside and she had hailed a cab. She turned to him as she was about to get in and smiled at him. She was surprised when he gave a half smile back and held out his hand to her. Slowly she put out her hand and he placed a small slip of paper there.

"If you ever get bored or have some free time give me a call." He said giving a wave and turning to go. For a moment Tori just stood there and stared after him unsure of what to think. Had she just been asked out on a date? The cabbie's obnoxious voice was what snapped her back to reality.

"You gonna get in or what?" He snapped and Tori hastily got into the car and gave directions to the driver. She just wanted this confusing night to be over.

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><p>So you guys like it? Hate it? Absolutely adore it? I'd like to know, even if it's only a two word message telling me what you thought. No flames though they depress me... unless you brought marshmallows to roast over them... then we'll be cool. Please review, they are love and I will totally give you a YJ clone of your choosing as soon as I finish engineering my device to bring cartoon characters here and my cloning device.<p>

Anyways~ Thanks for reading. I love all you Ghost Readers too!

~Peter


	2. Come together

**I am SO sorry that I didn't update last week like I promised myself I would! I'm a horrible person I know! I honestly did intend to finished typing this up but I got distracted... by Young Justice... I found the last few episodes with in Portuguese with English subs. It kind of killed me a bit on the inside knowing what I do know and kind of screwed my story a bit but I found a way to make it work. And for those of you who are waiting for the english episodes to come out I am not giving out spoilers so sorry. **

**To the DISCLAIMER: I do not own Young Justice or any other variation of DC Universe Comics... this includes Black Canary though I'm not going to lie I wish she was my nanny or something. That woman is awesome... to bad Ollie is dating her otherwise I'd totally tap that... Uhh *cough* I mean hug...**

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><p>Jade gave Tori a short, two day reprieve after the party before she burst into her best friend's rundown, little apartment, demanding answers about Tori's escape with the handsome guy she had ditched the party for. Of course Tori had an answer ready; she had had plenty of time to come up with a believable story to tell her friend bout Roy, who she still had yet to call. She dearly wanted to, but every time she picked up the phone to do so her stomach would fill with butterflies and she'd chicken out.<p>

"Oh come on, just call him!" Jade egged her on. The assassin was a bit disappointed with Tori's lame story about a walk and just talking. Tori had wanted to keep her tale G rate, despite Jade's assumption that something dirty had happened.

"But what if he's busy? Or it's the wrong number or something?"

Jade crossed her arms over her chest and cocked her hip to one side as she stared down at her friend menacingly. "Either you call him or I will." She threatened her eyes narrowing dangerously.

Tori's eyes likewise narrowed and she glared at the other girl. "You wouldn't."

Will all the agility of the renowned assassin she claimed to be, Jade leaped across the room and grabbed both the phone and the slip of paper with Roy's number before Tori even had a chance to react. When she did realize what her friend was doing she jumped to her feet and lunged for the phone as Jade dialed the number.

"Jade NO!" She screeched tackling the other girl to the floor and pinning her there. Jade started laughing as Tori grabbed the phone. She was going to abruptly hang up when a voice from the device caused her to pause.

"Hello?"

Tori's face went bright red, but she knew she couldn't just hang up now. So she put the phone to her ear. She was very aware that she was still sitting on Jade, who was doing her best (Not really) to hide her snickering. She scowled at her friend and jabbed her roughly in the ribs.

"Um hi... Roy?" She asked cautiously. On one hand she hoped it really was him. But on the other she hoped that Jade had dialed the wrong number. Roy was so far out of her league it wasn't even funny. She saw Jade look up at her and mouth the name, something Tori had refused to tell her before, but Tori ignored her pointedly.

"Yes... Is this Tori?" He replied.

"Y-yeah... I was wondering if maybe... you wanted to go out to coffee... or something tomorrow... with me... if you're not busy..." She said doing her best to not stumble over her words. Jade was still snickering at her. Tori scowled again and put her hand over the other girl's mouth to muffle the noise.

Over the phone she heard Roy chuckled and the sound made those pesky butterflies return."Sure. Did you want me to pick you up?"

"Ah... no that's okay. I can meet you there." She said. For some reason she didn't want him knowing that she lived on the rough side of town. Eventually she finished making plans with him and hung up the phone.

"So how's Roy?" Jade asked as a sly grin formed on her face. "You know, you never told me that your mysterious boy was _the_ Roy Harper."

Tori deadpanned "What?"

"Don't tell me you didn't clue in. There's only one Roy that fits his description that I know of and that's Roy Harper, heir to Oliver Queen's entire estate."

Tori blinked in confusion, it was as if her brain had temporarily shut down as it tried to process this information. She was going on a date with Roy Harper, one of the wealthiest and most important teenagers in Star City. How she had possibly managed to land that one was completely beyond her.

Jade just laughed at her stunned expression and pushed Tori off of her. "The one guy you fall for and it has to be the richest one in the entire city. You lucky dog."

"Jade!" Tori exclaimed getting to her feet, her face turning red. "I didn't 'fall' for him! It's just a date!"

"Really? Then why is your face all red?"

Tori immediately reached up and put her hands to her face and felt the heat spreading across her cheeks. Damn Jade and her need to torment her! Quickly she masked her embarrassment and scowled at her friend shoving her toward the door.

"Away with you! I have a job tonight and I don't need you getting on my nerves beforehand." She nearly snapped as Jade waved to her and left.

"If he takes you home for the night I want to know all about it!" She called down the hall and Tori slammed the door behind her.

~O~

Tonight's hit was the mansion of a wealthy collector who lived on the outskirts of the city. The item Spade was after was called the 'Scarf of Aphrodite'. A beautiful pale pink shawl that was embroidered with real silver and gold threads and had hundreds of tiny gems sewn into it. It was a true textile masterpiece and worth upward of half a million dollars.

A warning note had been sent out to the proper authorities, as was the trademark of Spade along with her habit of leaving behind an Ace of Spades playing card. Her victims were always given ample time to try and prevent the theft but they had yet to actually stop her. There was no challenge yet that she couldn't defeat even when heroes got involved.

Already Spade was inside the mansion, she had been for some time now but she knew that the authorities would be waiting for her to appear outside to enter the building as she normally would have. Tonight though she was playing it safe, she would get in and out as fast as she possibly could so she could minimize and injuries she might acquire. If she was going on a date the next day she didn't need cuts and bruises all over the place.

Slipping out of the shadows where she had been comfortably hiding, Spade approached the glass case where her target sat silently. The infrared sensors in her contacts allowed her to see the red beams that were scattered about the room. She would have to avoid these if she didn't want to trip the alarm and alert the police that she was here.

Slipping through the lasers was child's play, something she had done countless times before now, and soon she was across the room and next to the case that contained her prize. She lifted the glass slowly to avoid tripping yet another alarm that would sound if she were to damage the case in any way. Spade reached for the scarf but her hand stopped halfway, her eyes narrowing. This was not the real scarf, if anything it was a cheap replica. Did they think she was stupid enough to fall for this?

"Looking for something?" A feminine voice called to her and Spade slowly turned around, the muscles in her back visibly tense when she realised she had been found. In the doorway stood Black Canary, the real Scarf of Aphrodite in her hand. Canary smiled ruefully at the girl and Spade took a step back, covering her ears a second before the woman before her let out her famous, ear piercing, Canary Cry.

The sheer volume and force of the sound sent Spade stumbling back, tripping the alarm in the process. She grit her teeth angrily. She had to stop Canary from catching her and get that scarf.

As soon as Canary's voice faded spade rushed her and the blonde woman put up her arms to defend herself from attack. Under her mask Spade smirked and slid to the ground, going right under the hero's legs, grabbing the scarf that was tucked into Canary's pocket at the same time.

She could tell that Canary was surprised by the move, but Spade didn't stick around to fight. She wasn't much of a fighter anyway; there was no way she could stand up to Canary.

"Hey!" She heard Canary yell but Spade was already tearing down the hall. She came to a dead end and without thinking about it threw herself through the window to her left, shattering the glass as she did. She could feel some of the shards dig into the skin of her right arm an she cursed herself for getting injured when she hadn't wanted to.

Spade hit the ground running and disappeared into the shadows before anymore pesky heroes could catch up with her.

~O~

The next day found Tori outside at the local community center, where she worked full time, shooting hoops with some of the kids. It was a three on three match and her team was winning, even though she really wasn't trying very hard; she did have to give the other team some leeway, they were just kids.

"Tori pass the ball!" One of the younger boy, Dominic, called waving his arms to get her attention.

"Heads up Dom!" She shouted back ducking around Josh and Katie to pass the ball to the small boy. He caught it and threw it at the hoop with all his might. Tori and Gale, their third player, cheered and ran over to Dominic clapping him on the back and exchanging high fives. Tori pulled off the baseball cap she was wearing and put it on his head, tugging it around backwards for a cooler effect. The boy grinned at her, his smile missing several teeth that he had lost, he was only nine and he was still losing baby teeth.

"Okay guys, what do you want to play next? It can't take too long, I have to go soon." She said turning to the other kids with her hands on her hips.

"Someone has a date." Katie snickered to Savannah, who had just entered the basketball court. Tori turned and raised an eyebrow at the two fourteen year olds, her questions clear on her face.

"Oh and who told you that one?" She asked watching the two girls snicker behind their hands before they pointed off to the side.

Tori's eyes followed their little fingers and her jaw almost literally dropped when she saw Roy leaning against the side of the basketball court with his arms crossed over his chest and a small smirk on his face. It took her a moment to gather herself and she straightened herself quickly, clearing her throat as she did so. She also sent a look to the two giggling girls that sent them skittering off to somewhere.

"Alright, off with the rest of you too. Time to pack up the gym before you head home." She said clapping her hands and shooing the rest of the kids toward the building as they let out a collective "Aww"

"You have them on a short leash." Roy said approaching her when the last of the kids had vanished into the building. Tori had a sneaking suspicion that there would be little cleaning and a lot of spying through windows going on in there.

"Not really. You should see some of the trouble they get into." She smiled at him and felt those pesky butterflies return when he smiled, actually smiled, back at her. He seemed more relaxed now than he had at the party as if he was glad he didn't have to deal with the oppressive atmosphere there. "What are you doing here anyway? How'd you know where I was?"

"I got a message this morning on my phone stating that a proper gentleman would pick up his date even if she had declined his offer. It said a few other things that were quite convincing." He shrugged as he quirked and eyebrow at her as if asking if she knew anything about the strange message.

"Jade" She growled under her breath as various dark and evil thoughts crossed through her mind about what she was going to do to Jade when she managed to get her hands on her best friend. It figures Jade would pull something like this, she had been trying to meddle in Tori's nonexistent love life since they were fourteen. However Roy didn't need to know the various different ways she was going to use to skin Jade alive and just sighed. "I'm sorry that you had to listen to that. And that you came all the way out here..." She said shuffling her feet nervously.

"Don't worry about it. Do you want to get going?"

Tori nodded. She had already put on some casual clothes before coming to the center so she would be ready to go as soon as she was done her shift. Jade would have scolded her for not dressing up and trying to look nice but Tori preferred comfortable clothing over looking nice.

"I just have to grab my jacket and make sure the kids haven't broken anything." She informed him. "Wait right here, I'll be right back."

When he nodded, Tori ran inside the door and grabbed her jacket, pausing only a moment to pull out her phone and send a rather hateful message to Jade. She was just about to open the door again when Dominic and one of the other younger boys approached her.

"Hey Tori?" The dark skinned boy asked shyly.

Crouching to the boy's eye level Tori smiled at him. "Yeah D, what's up?"

"Um... Is that your boyfriend?" The young boy asked.

Tori blinked a few times and fought to keep her face neutral. "No Dominic, Roy is not my boyfriend. We're just going on a date."

"If he does become your boyfriend can he play basketball with us?"

"I'm sure if you asked him he'd like to do that some time Dom. Right now I have to go though." She said holding out a fist to him and he tapped it lightly with his own while showing her a toothy grin.

Tori bid the kids farewell and ran out the door, back to Roy who was waiting for her exactly where she had told him to. He smiled and led her back to his car which was probably the most expensive vehicle she had ever had the privilege of riding in. At least it was the most expensive she would ride in while she was a civilian. It was sleek, expensive and red, totally out of place on this side of town and it reminded Tori of just how far out of her league Roy was. Her stomach twisted uncomfortably into knots. Why hadn't he called off this date the moment he had found out where she was working? Didn't he know that being seen on this side of town was dangerous for him? Not only because he had a nice car but because of who he was. It was very possible he could get hurt out here, even in the middle of the day. However when Tori glanced over at him as she pulled on her seat-belt he looked calm, completely at ease. Geez, what had she gotten herself into?

"So you work there?" Roy asked when they had pulled out of the community center parking lot and were heading down the road. Tori was still staring at the car in awe, it hardly made a noise compared to the buses that did rounds on the streets.

Eventually she found her voice and answered him. "Yeah. I've worked there for three years, since I was fifteen. The man who runs the place was a bit reluctant about my age but when you're fifteen and living in the slums there isn't a whole lot of other options. So he gave me the job so long as I promised to keep off the streets.

Roy nodded as if in understanding. Maybe knew more about the slums than she thought he would. He seemed to understand that she wouldn't have had a lot of options open to her for employment, especially as a girl. She was lucky that Mark had given her a job, it was what probably kept her off of the streets for the most part. She was glad the old man didn't know about her questionable extracurriculars.

Neither of them brought up the topic of Tori's employment or that she lived in the slums again, though Tori dearly wanted to ask if it bothered him that she had left that information out when she had met him. But at the same time she was glad that he didn't, it was a long story, one she would rather save for if and when she got to know him better. Instead the topic of conversation switched to lighter things and Tori was unaware of the hours that slipped by as they sat in the coffee shop and talked. Despite the fact that Roy seemed to be perpetually serious he still managed to make her laugh until her sides hurt.

"No way. You're kidding." She said trying to stifle her giggles.

"I'm serious he ran right into the wall and busted his nose." He said.

This sent Tori into another fit of laughter over Roy's friend who, for some reason or other, had a bad habit of running into walls. Her glee was short lived however when the waitress at the counter turned up the volume of the TV to listen to a news cast.

"_And yet again the notorious thief known as Spade has made off with another priceless artifact. The scarf of Aphrodite was worth an estimated five hundred thousand American dollars. Police speculate that Spade was already within the Hilroy manor when the perimeter was set and that she was intercepted by Black Canary before she managed to make off with the scarf."_ The woman on the screen announced. Tori turned in her seat to watch the news report, her face carefully schooled not to show a reaction that could give her away.

"_There are many theories as to the true identity of this villain, but she still has yet to be found by law enforcement or the Justice League. Some say that she works for the League of Shadows, others say that she is a Catwoman copycat but no one knows for sure what her real motives are. Perhaps if we knew then perhaps the police would be one step closer to catching her."_

Tori turned away from the screen. She'd heard enough. They still had no way of finding or tracking her and that was all she really cared about.

"I wonder why she does it, and how she manages to get away all the time." Roy said after a moment. His voice sounded casual but Tori detected a bit of frustration underlying his attempt to appear calm.

"Who knows?" She shrugged trying to appear nonchalant "Honestly I don't see why police and even the Justice League make such a big deal over a petty thief when they could be trying to find major villains like the Joker or Black Manta." She took a sip of her drink. The subject stopped there, it was clear neither of them wanted to say more on the matter because they clearly disagreed on it.

After a while Roy suggested that he drive her home and though she initially protested to the idea she eventually agreed and allowed him to take her back to her apartment. When he pulled up in front of her building she turned to him with a shy smile.

"Thanks for today. I really had fun." It sounded so cliché out loud, but it was how she felt. She had really enjoyed spending time with Roy. "I'd invite you in, but I'd be afraid someone would trash or jack your car."

Roy smirked and nodded in understanding. "I'll give you a call next week, if you're free we can go out again."

In her head Tori did a little happy dance, excited at the prospect of another date but she kept her face schooled to a smile. "Yeah of course. I'll see you later Roy." She gave him a short peck on the cheek then got out of the car and waved before she ran to the front door of her building with an impossibly happy grin on her face.

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><p>Yay for chapter 2!<p>

Yay for people who reviewed!

Special thanks and shout out to YJCrazy, BookwormStrawberry, Ghost(This made me giggle for some reason) and anon who also reveiwed my other story "Unbreakable". You guys are awesome. I would give a shout out to those of you who alerted and Favorited too but I have no idea who you are since my PM thing isn't working and I'm not getting emails from Fanfiction for some ungodly reason.

ANYWAYS!~ Love you guys. Cupcakes for you all! I will (Hopefully) Have chapter 3 out next week... Tuesday or Wednesday at the latest. It's already written in my book... I just have to edit some things and type it up and we'll be good.

~Peter


	3. Blood on the Dance Floor

**I promised myself I wouldn't post this before next week but I came online earlier and saw all the wonderful reviews and I just couldn't help myself. So be happy I spent all day making a timeline for this story and writing this chapter. Also I've decided that I'm going to start using dates for what happens like they do in the show so it's easier to follow along in the time line(this is mostly for me so I'm not getting lost). It'll also usually only be if there is a significant change in time or place.**

**DISCLAIMER****: I do not own YJ or any of the DC comics. However I do own Tori and by extension Spade. Steal them and I'll send Roy and Cheshire after you. They'd totally work together to get her back ;p**

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><p>Star City<p>

Tori's Apartment

July 30th 21:08 PDT

It was almost two months after Tori's first date with Roy and so far everything was great. They had set up dates for the first few weeks, always trying to juggle around each others busy schedules. Roy had no idea about Tori's 'second job' and she hoped it would stay that way. But aside from that she was very happy. She had had quite a few jobs over the last month which had left her tired but more jobs meant more money.

It was night time and Tori was just getting back from another outing with Roy. They had gone to middle class restaurant and she had gotten to meet Oliver Queen, Roy's foster father and the man's girlfriend Dinah Lance. Both were very kind and she enjoy their company, Dinah had even invited her to a girl's spa day sometime in the future so they could get to know each other better. Roy had not seemed so excited about this, he had told her that he and Oliver were having a hard time getting along lately but the blond man had conned him into the date so he could meet the girl his ward was with all the time.

Tori smiled as she unlocked her door and stepped into her apartment, it had been a good night but the smile slipped off of her face when she closed the door behind her and looked around the small living room. Something was wrong here, the atmosphere of the room felt different. Someone else was here with her. Her upbeat mood evaporated and she was immediately on guard. She threw her jacket off to the side stepping further into the room to investigate.

"How was your date?"

Tori jumped and spun on her heel to face Jade who was decked out in the attire of Cheshire, which meant she was just getting ready to go on a job.

"Jade! What the hell?" She snapped when her heart rate had resumed its regular pace. "Were you waiting for me here or something?"

"Of course I wanted to know how your date went. Have you kissed him yet?" Jade teased toying with the grinning cat mask in her hands.

Tori felt her face flush in embarrassment but she couldn't find it in herself to stay mad at her friend. She sighed, running a hand through her short black hair and sat in the arm chair across from Jade. "No Jade he did not kiss me." She said trying her best not to sound too disappointed. She hadn't been expecting him to, they had agreed to go slow with their relationship and to keep it low key so the press didn't get wind of it, that didn't mean she didn't want to kiss him though. They had a few times but it was not something that happened every time they saw one another. She knew she had strong feelings for the hot headed boy, even after only two months and the fact that he had been particularly moody since July, she could only hope he felt the same way and was just bad at expressing himself.

"Aw." Jade cooed. "And what about the rest of the date?" She seemed intent on getting details.

"It was nice. I met Oliver and his girlfriend and we all sat and talked over dinner." She gave Jade the brief version. She didn't like getting into too many details because she knew Jade would want to psycho analyze everything that was said.

Jade seemed disappointed with her friend's aversion to the topic but apparently decided she could wheedle information out of her later. She had other matters to attend to, she never came to Tori's apartment in full Cheshire garb just to gossip. Something was obviously up.

"I have another job for you."She said after a moment her tone casual and business like at the same time.

"I don't know Jade. I already have enough heat on me from the police as it is. Never mind the attention I'm getting from the Justice League. I've been drawing too much attention to myself lately, in the span of a couple of months I've faced down Canary twice and Green Arrow and his sidekick Speedy at least four times." Tori said rubbing her mechanical arm. There was a phantom pain there that bothered her every once in a while as it was now. She was still shaken up from her last encounter with Green Arrow a week ago. She had been lucky to get away.

"Look Tori, I know you've managed to keep your identity hidden from even the Shadows, but this isn't really an offer you can turn down. The Shadows have intel that Speedy's gone solo and Green Arrow and Canary are out of town. Now is prime time to do this."

"Since when has Speedy done anything solo?" She asked clearly surprised.

"On the fourth he was seen storming out of the hall of Justice, clearly someone was having a temper tantrum. He's been going by Red Arrow for the last few weeks." Jade told her with a flippant wave of her hand. "So are you in?"

Tori rubbed her head and went over to the window of her apartment to look out of it at the dirty streets below. It was later in the evening so the street lamps were flickering on as the city became darker. She crossed her arms over her chest and with a frown on her face she turned to her best friend.

"What do I have to do?"

~O~

A few hours later found Spade sitting on the roof of Star Labs, hidden away in the shadows while she waited for the last of the night shift to leave the building. Soon enough only the janitors would be left and she would be able to sneak in and get the information that the Shadows wanted her to gather.

This time the police had not been notified of the robbery because the information she was stealing needed to be kept as quiet as possible. This job did not need media attention and neither did she. She'd dealt with enough heroes and injuries in the last few months and she didn't want anymore.

When she was sure the building was empty she slipped into the building through the ventilation shaft on the roof and began navigating her way through the cramped space. She had managed to acquire a blue print of the building before she had come and had studied it until she had it memorized. Usually she had a few days to gather maps, memorize them and decide on the best route to take but today she had only had a few hours to prepare so she was acting on the fly.

Her target was in a lab on the thirty second floor, one of the floors that dealt with the engineering of new technologies. She wasn't sure what the Shadows wanted with the information, something about a robotics expert, but she didn't even need to know that. She just needed to get it and get out, no questions asked. When she arrived at the appropriate floor she peered out of a grate to make sure no one was in the room before she slipped out of it.

Spade pulled a small USB stick from her pocket as she strode over to the nearest computer and plugged it into the tower. All she would need to do was copy the entire hard drive which would bring along the rest of the information on the computer. The hard part was accessing the computer, which was encrypted. Spade was no hacker, so she pulled a small black disk like device from another pocket and placed it on the top of the tower. Several red lights appeared on it, flashing and one by one turning green in color. There was a slight beep when it was finished and the password screen vanished.

When all of the information had been copied onto the USB Spade pulled it out and pocketed both devices. She moved to turn off the computer when she heard a noise outside the door. Instead of letting the computer shut down manually she pulled the plug from the wall and ran for the vent. She made it half way across the room before the door creaked and she had to dive behind a desk to hide.

Footsteps approached her hiding spot slowly and she pressed herself closer against the wood, holding her breath as if it would help keep her hidden. Chancing a glance around the corner of the desk she had to immediately whip her head back, her heart hammering loudly in her chest.

Red Arrow stood not ten paces away from her hiding spot, bow drawn and ready as he looked around the room. Why was he even here! There was no way anyone could have known she was here, only Jade and the Shadows knew about this job. But if he was here someone had to have tipped him off because the security cameras had been disabled before she's entered the building. This meant one of two things A) Red was a metahuman with psychic powers of B)There was a snitch within the Shadows.

Spade grit her teeth and went through multiple escape scenarios in her head, none of which seemed to be effective or appealing. If she revealed herself she was caught, but if she waited much longer she would be caught anyway, and in a room with only one exit and no windows her chances of escape were slim. Even if she could get back to the vents before he caught her he would know she was in there and could cut her off or seal the vents so she couldn't get out. That left her with only one option, one she didn't even want to consider.

He was two steps closer now and Spade's heart was ready to leap out of her chest and onto the floor in front of her. She had never been cornered like this before, even when she had first started stealing. She squeezed her eyes shut and inhaled as quietly as she could, she knew her options and in six more paces she wouldn't have any. She had to act now.

Opening her eyes she took another deep breath and exhaled very slowly as she tucked herself further into the shadows that hid her. He was four paces away now and she focused solely on the darkness around her.

Three paces. She felt a tugging sensation in her gut and she could feel the blackness leaking over the whites of her eyes and even over the red tint of her contacts.

Two paces. The pulling in her stomach strengthened and the shadow she was in darkened as she began sinking through it. Just as the footsteps came level with her hiding spot she slipped entirely within the darkness.

She was only in the blackness for a short period of time, less than a minute before it practically spit her back out. She stumbled as she walked out of the shadow that was cast in the corner of her living room. Her eyes were back to normal but her skin had turned a sickly grey color.

Spade pulled her white wig off roughly and tossed it elsewhere as she hunched over holding onto her chest because it felt as if something were crushing her lungs. This was the unfortunate side effect of the power she held. She could transport herself and anything she touched through the shadows as well as manipulate them into weapons, but the use of the ability hurt like a bitch so she only used it sparingly.

Stumbling to the bathroom she wrenched open her medicine cabinet and fumbled with various bottles until she pulled out a small one from the back and opened it. Her hands were shaking and her lungs were burning as she shoved two of the pills into her mouth and swallowed without the assistance of a glass of water. Swallowing the pills proved to be a challenge but she managed it with a few coarse coughs that fleck her bathroom sink with spots of blood.

It took a few minutes for the medicine to take effect but when it did she sank to the floor on her knees, her hands still gripping the sides of the sink and she rested her head against the cool porcelain. The cool relief in her lungs was most welcome as she sat there on the floor with her eyes closed against the rest of the world.

Eventually she found the energy to make her way to her bedroom and pull of the remainder of her Spade costume. She also retrieved the wig and hid it all under a loose wooden panel in her closet, then she stowed the USB with the stolen information in her safe, she would deal with that later.

~O~

Tori was out of commission for the next few days, her body having reacted worse than usual to her use of shadow travel. She had never had such a bad reaction but then she had never used the ability so much as she had in the last month. She had had to use it on several situations in which she had had to use the ability. It didn't help that she had forgotten to take her medication earlier that day.

The medication certainly helped her condition, but only if she took it every day. And the medication itself was hard to find because nothing like it had existed before she had coerced a local doctor into making it for her. So not only was the drug illegal but it was also expensive because the man who made it for her wanted to be paid for his silence. There were some side effects to the medication and it didn't entirely stop the pain but at least it gave her some extra time.

When the pain of the illness had passed enough that she could function decently Tori started going back to work with the kids, who were simple ecstatic that she was back. As much as they loved the other workers, Tori was closest to them in age and took the most time to spend with them outside her work hours. She was happy to be at work again, this was her real job. She tried to distance herself from her career as Spade. So things seemed pretty good right now, but she knew it couldn't stay that way there was always something that happened to rain in her parade.

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><p>A bit shorter than I usually go for but it has all of the information that I wanted in there. I know that making her being a Meta kind of came out of left field there but I assure you that she was supposed to be one from the beginning. I also alluded to it in the last chapter when she was escaping from Canary if any of you guys noticed that. I bet you're wondering why she didn't use it in the first chapter to escape Speedy and GA too. Like I said, Tori tries not to use the ability if she can avoid it because it is the cause of a respiratory disease that kills her a little more every time she uses it. So instead she called Jade for a little help. Any questions about it just ask and I'll do my best to answer them.<p>

Moving on~ I'd like to give a GREAT BIG HUG AND THANK YOU to cheshirecat900, Ghost, maryk, and MidnightRoulette for reviewing. it is because of you guys that I decided to post this just minutes after I finished writing it. And don't worry MidnightRoulette there is actually some Jade/Tori bonding time in the next chapter. Also there is some drama regarding Roy. But that's all I will say for now.

Please review lots guys! I love it when I see that you guys like the story! I write it for you (And a little for me) so I get discouraged when I don't see that anyone wants more! Remember reviews are love and cookies! OM NOM ROY COOKIES! ... I seriously have to go make some YJ and JL cookies now... while wearing my Batman shirt! XD.

~ Peter


	4. Another Part of Me

**Holy Happy Harbour! Another Chapter!** **I should really start limiting myself on how many chapters I publish in the course of a week. But I can't help it! I love you guys too much and I want to share my writing with you! Ahem~ Moving on. **

**DISCLAIMER****: I unfortunately do not own YJ or any of the DC universe variants. I do own Tori though, she's mine and you can't have her. **

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><p>Star City<p>

City Mall

August 17th 11:29 PDT

"You know Tori, I'm so glad you decided to come out with me today before your date." Jade said with a happy grin on her face as she dragged Tori around the mall. Tori gave her friend a sideways glance and smile but said nothing as she was pulled into the first store that caught Jade's eye.

They had just arrived at the mall after Jade had snuck into Tori's apartment to wake her up on her day off and somehow manage to convince her to come to the mall with her so they could go shopping. Tori had been reluctant to agree, she was planning to spend the day relaxing before she went to Roy's apartment to watch some movies. It wasn't the first time she had stayed at his place, but Jade still wanted to make sure Tori wore 'something nice' as she had put it.

They weren't even ten minutes into their trip and Tori was already wondering if she was going to regret this. The last time Jade had forced her into clothes was the night of her party months ago. And she had been very against that outfit, though it was what she was wearing when she met Roy. Besides what Jade would want her to wear tonight almost made her shudder. The implications of what she had said made Tori's face turn bright red.

"What about this?" Jade asked holding up a very low cut shirt. Tori looked up, she hadn't been paying attention.

"For me or you?"She asked raising an eyebrow at the garment to show Jade that she didn't like it. "Because if that's for me no way."

Jade pouted and put the shirt back on the rack and moved on to the next one. "You know if you're going to get some action you're going to have to show some skin." She said.

"Who said I'm looking for action!" Tori protested making finger quotations when she said the word action. "I'm going over to watch movies."

"Oh sure that's what you say now. But what happens when you're making out on the couch and he-"

"Jade!" Tori exclaimed clapping her hands over her ears. "Do you really have to talk about that stuff in public... and about _my_ boyfriend no less."

Jade grinned and turned to Tori with a new shirt in her hand. Tori shook her head and it was thrown back onto the rack. "Why? Is it getting you all hot and bothered?"

"No." _Yes._ She growled and locked away the mental images Jade's talk had conjured up. She was a hormonal teenager, it was bound to happen, but still she didn't need to be reminded of that when she was going to be sleeping in the same apartment of possibly the sexiest guy in Star City that night.

Jade just continued smiling but obliged Tori's unspoken request to drop the subject and struck up a conversation about her trip to Taipei in September. They both knew that this 'trip' was actually a mission in which Jade would be assassinating someone but they spoke of it as if it were just a regular vacation. They had developed a sort of code that they used when talking about jobs so it just sounded like casual conversation.

"It should be an eventful trip. I'm going to try to do a lot of sightseeing." Jade said _I probably won't be getting much sleep. There is some surveillance involved._

"Really? What kind of sightseeing?" Tori asked casually _Who or what is your target._

"Oh you know the usual tourist spots. I heard that there's a peace summit going on there too with a mystery arbitrator I might go check it out just to see who it is."Jade replied showing Tori a short skirt that was immediately shot down. _I'm going to be stationed at the summit to stop it from happening. The peace keeper is my target._

"Sounds interesting. You'll have to tell me all about it when you get back." Tori picked up a shirt that was displayed on a table but Jade shook her head to it before Tori could even decide if she liked it. Instead she handed her another one that didn't look half bad compared to what Jade could have forced her into.

They continued shopping, mostly disagreeing on what to get since their personal styles were so different, and eventually ended up at the food court after Tori had almost literally dragged Jade out of the lingerie story. Anything Jade touched in there was not to be touched with a ten foot pole in Tori's opinion.

"I don't know why you're so opposed to the idea of getting a nice set of underwear for tonight. Anything could happen you know." Jade said while grinning and Tori had the urge to smack herself in the face. Hadn't they agreed to leave this conversation alone?

"Roy's not like that okay." She sighed.

"What is he, gay?"Jade scoffed and then began laughing at the scandalized look Tori gave her. "I'm kidding Tori. Relax. You know I'm just teasing you right."

"Uh huh. You know Jade why don't you get a boyfriend and then you can buy pretty panties for yourself." Tori said with a flippant wave.

"Oh I don't need a guy to do that." The two girls stared at one another for a moment and burst out laughing. Not because it was necessarily funny, but because it was very true.

Again the conversation moved forward from boys to other things as they ordered some food and began to chow down on their chosen meals. They took a good few minutes to laugh at an elderly lady's atrocious feathery hat. Of course they had to cover their snickers because said lady kept shooting them dirty glances until they got up to leave and continue shopping.

Eventually they both weighed down by shopping bags from various stores and they decided to stop in at a nail salon to get their nails done. They really should have had an appointment but Jade knew the man who ran the store and got him to pull some strings for them.

"I can't remember the last time I got my nails done." Tori said when they left the shop.

"That's because you always break them when you're working at that community center and refuse to go back for months because you claim it's a waste of money." Jade reminded her and they shared a giggle just as Tori's phone went off. She looked at the time and was surprised to see that it was nearing supper time.

"Hello?" She answered the phone, cradling it between her ear and shoulder as she walked. "Oh hey Roy." She said a smile lighting up her face. Jade made a kissy face at her and she pushed her away. "Hm? No, I'm just finishing up shopping with a friend... You don't have to do that... but... Fine, I'll see you in a few."

"What's lover boy want?" Jade asked as soon as Tori hung up the phone.

"He wanted to know if I wanted to pick him up." She said her smile still on her face. "I told him he didn't have to but her insisted."

"That boy spoils you. Which is good since you hardly spoil yourself." Jade said as they walked outside. It was a warm night but there was still a slight breeze.

"Since when is offering to pick me up spoiling me?" Tori asked with a deadpanned expression.

"It's not just picking you up. You see each other at least once a week. He takes you to dinner and invites you to watch movies... come to think of it; I think you spend more time with him than you do with me. I'm hurt." She said melodramatically.

Tori scoffed and shoved her friend a bit. "Hardly. He doesn't break into my apartment on a constant basis."

"We can fix that you know." Jade replied with a grin as she hailed a taxi. She hopped inside the vehicle and turned to Tori. "Call me if anything interesting happens!"

Tori sighed but waved to her friend as the car left and she leaned against the wall close to the doors while she waited for Roy. She didn't have to wait long until she saw his car pulling into the parking lot. Her face lit up when she saw him and she did her best not to jump in the car before it had even stopped.

"I didn't think you'd be here that fast." She said as she got in the passenger's side door and leaned over to give him a peck on the cheek like she had on their first date months ago. He turned his head at the last moment so she caught his lips and smirked at her shocked expression. It was rare he would do something like that in public. They had managed to keep the press off their backs so far, and Roy was usually careful in crowded places not to let them know. Paparazzi just complicated things.

"I was in the neighborhood." Was his reply as he waited for her to get her seat belt on before he began driving.

"You know if I didn't know any better I'd think you were waiting around here for me... Did Jade text you again?" She asked her eyes narrowing suspiciously. Roy glanced over at her and his face became sheepish. Tori almost wished she had a camera to take a picture; it wasn't every day that Roy Harper had a look like that on his face. However she was a bit miffed that he had listened to Jade again.

He saw the irritation on her face. "Sorry. I know it bugs you when she gets involved."

"I'm not mad at you Roy. I'm mad that she managed to get a hold of you and I didn't notice." She sighed and smiled a bit when he laughed. "Not that I mind you picking me up or anything."

It didn't take the couple very long to get back to Roy's apartment since it was not very far from the mall. Tori made herself at home the moment she took her shoes off and sank into the couch in the large living room area.

Roy's apartment was much nicer than Tori's and a lot better furnished, which was probably why they spent more time here than at her apartment. That and she didn't want to risk him finding out what she did as a second job. Roy had a sense of justice that would do even Superman proud; she wasn't sure how he'd react if he found out she was Spade. Just the thought send shivers through her.

After Roy managed to convince Tori to get off the couch ("But it's so comfy!") they made popcorn and gathered snacks before the first movie was turned on. Tori curled up next to Roy on the couch and he had his feet propped up on the coffee table, his arm around her waist. The movie was an action film that Tori had chosen, it was one of her favorites because it turned out that the bad guy was actually one of the good guys in the end.

By the time the third movie was over it was close to midnight and Tori had fallen asleep on Roy's shoulder. She was tired from being up late the night before. She was slightly aware of her surroundings so she knew when Roy picked her up and deposited her in his bed, tucking her in as if she was a small child. In her half sleep she smiled and buried her face in the sheets that smelled distinctly like him.

Roy did not get into bed after her like he usually would have but she figured he was probably in the living room cleaning up the mess of popcorn and movies. She let herself fully slip into sleep with a sigh. Had she tried to stay awake a little longer she would have heard a muffled conversation from the living room about some crime taking place and Roy leaving to another room where he didn't return from.

Tori woke suddenly a few hours later due to a dream she couldn't quite remember. She looked around her and spotted the clock on the bedside table. The red flashing numbers told her that it was well past four in the morning. A frown quickly came to her face, where was Roy? He wasn't in the room, despite how late it was and there was no sign of him having gotten ready for sleep either. Cautiously Tori pushed the blankets off and got up from the bed.

Perhaps he had fallen asleep on the couch? When she checked the living room he wasn't there. The popcorn and snacks had been tidied as she had suspected earlier but there was still no sign of Roy.

"Roy?" She called as an uneasy feeling came over her. Had something happened? Did he get kidnapped while she slept? If that was the case she should have woken up, Roy would not have gone down without a fight. But there was no sign of a fight either.

"Roy!" She called again going into another room. The door to this room was usually closed, Roy had said it was his computer room and there certainly was a computer in there. But that wasn't the only thing. The walls were covered with newspaper cuttings, different ones about different villains even a few about her, which made her uneasy feeling increase even more.

She moved further into the room and spotted a desk off to the side that she had not seen from the door. There was no computer here, instead it was littered with what she thought were arrow parts and several different kinds of bows hung on the wall above it, all were red in color.

Tori's face drained of all color when she realized what she was looking at. The arrows and bows, the newspaper clippings, those times when Roy said he couldn't go out late because he had prior plans. He was Red Arrow.

The sound of movement in the apartment startled her and she turned swiftly on her heel to face the door where a figure had just blocked out the light. Even with his face shadowed Tori could see the domino mask that covered his eyes and the familiar garb of the hero who she often went toe to toe with when she was Spade. The look on his face only confirmed her suspicions. He looked shocked beyond belief that she was in here, not like he had forbidden it anyway.

"I'm guessing that this isn't just because you're a Red Arrow groupie." She said with a nervous laugh.

"Tori... what are you doing in here?" He asked dryly when he found his voice.

She shuffled nervously and rubbed her arm. "I woke up and you weren't here... I thought something had happened to you." She mumbled looking away from him. She heard a sigh and the lights flicked on, causing her to cover her eyes to avoid being blinded. When she looked up Roy had moved into the room and was outing his gear away.

"You weren't going to tell me, were you?" She asked watching him carefully.

"No, not yet anyway." He said calmly. She felt like she should be mad at him, that he was doing something so dangerous and not telling her about it. But she knew she was keeping things from him too. Besides they hadn't been together that long, why should he have to tell her this kind of thing, especially if it could get her into some kind of danger herself. His voice broke her from her thoughts. "I expected that you'd be mad."

Tori sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "I'm not mad, I'm more... worried. I've seen what you do on the news." _And on the field_ she thought. "I can understand why you wouldn't say anything. You can't risk the bad guys knowing who you are and if I know they find out that I know then we're both in even more danger. Trust me I get it."

"So you're not mad?" He asked just to clarify and Tori had to laugh at how serious he was being if only a little.

"I'm not going to get angry at you for stopping criminals Roy." She said feeling a clenching in her stomach. She was one of the criminals he was trying to stop. Oh, god, what would he do if he found out? She wondered for the second time that night. She tried not to let her distress show on her face until she saw a line of blood drip down his arm. "But I might get mad if you hide you're injuries from me.

Roy looked surprised and looked down at his arm. Maybe he hadn't noticed it before now. "It's nothing just a scratch." He said with a shrug as he finally pulled off his mask. Tori was struck by just how different he looked without it on. He acted different too. Red Arrow was easily provoked and always serious or angry about everything. But even though Roy was serious he could laugh and was lighthearted. He was worried that his girlfriend was mad that he had hidden something from her. It was like they were two different people. She recognized that he distanced himself from his secret life like she did with hers. Maybe it was true that villains and heroes weren't so different after all.

Still she sighed and grabbed his arm when he tried to hide the injury from her. "Just a scratch." She grumbled under her breath as she looked at it. It was a scratch but it was still enough that it should be bandaged to prevent it from bleeding or getting infected. "Come on."

She practically dragged him to the bathroom and flipped on the light. She opened the medicine cabinet and pulled out a first aid kit she knew was hidden in there. She had never questioned the reason that it was in there before, some people liked to keep those things around but now she knew it's real purpose. She opened it and ordered Roy to sit down. He did so and leaned back against the wall while she fished out some peroxide and a roll of gauze and bandages.

"It'll sting a little." She said looking up at him as she laid his hand on her lap. He nodded and she poured the disinfectant over the wound as quickly as she possibly could before she began wrapping his arm in the bandage.

"You seem to have practice with this." He observed as she tied the bandage off so it wouldn't become loose.

"I work at a place with unruly kids who have a habit of getting into trouble... If I didn't know how to do this I'd be dealing with a lot of bloody kids." She said lightly poking him in the chest. "Is there anything else that hurts?"

"Just my pride. It's kind of embarrassing that my girlfriend had to patch me up." He joked as she sat next to him and leaned her head on his shoulder.

"Get used to it." She teased. She wasn't going anywhere. She was afraid of what might happen when he found out her secret; because she knew he most certainly wouldn't be taking care of her injuries. And she knew he would find out eventually, there were no ifs in this equation, but she wasn't going to stop seeing him or break up with him because of it. She didn't want to, it didn't seem right. Besides who would make sure he didn't hurt himself if she wasn't around? She smiled to herself when she felt his good arm around her shoulder. No, she wasn't going anywhere.

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><p>So there's a little JadeTori friendship stuff going on and Tori just realized she was dating the bane of Spade's existence. She's not going to be scared off so easy though, she just a little too attached to Roy. Oh the power of love. Makes me jealous... I want a Roy Harper of my very own... I'm working on a solution for that problem though.

Great big thanks to cheshirecat900 (You can have Roy cookies. But you have to wear your Batty shirt when they're delivered.) Azulish, Ghost, Summer-Rain-Goddess, and Rene. I loved all of your guys reviews. They made me very happy. To those who are Favoriting and Alerting too. You guys rock my totally cool froggie socks.

I'm warning you guys now, the next chapter has some drama for Tori. It's gonna get a little emotional and before you ask no Roy doesn't find out she's Spade... that's not for another few chapters, at least two or three depending on how the next chapters turn out.

Lots of love guys! Keep reviewing because reviews mean love and make me update faster. I may not update till next week since I'm back to work tonight (I was on vacation but now I'm back to graveyard shifts at the coffee shop). But I promise that I will update!

~Peter


	5. The Lost Children

**I promised myself I wouldn't update this until Monday. But I gave in when I noticed that I had gotten seven reviews on the last chapter. All very wonderful. It made me happy on the inside. So a little drama and tears in this chapter, just to warn you. I was teary the whole time I was working on it. **

**Disclaimer: I own no rights to Young Justice or DC comics. I shouldn't have rights to my own characters because of all the shit I put them through, but unfortunately for them they have no choice in the matter.  
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><p>Star City<p>

Tori's Apartment

September 9th 21:38 PDT

Tori looked at her watch as she pulled on her tight black spandex shirt that displayed a white spade across the chest. The top part of her uniform as Spade. She was getting ready for a job that she would be doing later on that night, but she was also waiting on a call from Roy. He had been out of town for the last few days and was supposed to have called by now to tell her when his flight back to Star City was coming in.

Roy hadn't told her exactly where he was going when he left the city, but the answer was kind of obvious anyway. Especially after she had watched the news two day prior. Did he really think that she wasn't going to figure out that he was going to stop an assassination at the Rhelasian summit, which, ironically, was where Jade's latest target had been. She just hoped that neither of them came back too damaged after their run in with one another. It was a good thing neither of them knew each other's secret identities and Tori hoped it would stay that way otherwise she'd be caught in a place she didn't want to be. It also helped that Roy had only seen Jade in person once and Tori spoke of her only by her first name, otherwise he may have recognized her when she was captured.

Now, knowing that Roy was really Red Arrow as a bit stressful for her, especially when she was going on jobs where she ran into him. There had already been two such occurrences when she had come face to face with him as Spade and she had only just gotten away both times. Guilt chewed at her for not telling him the truth about who she was, but when she was running from him and dodging his trick arrows her silence was only enforced. He seemed intent on catching Spade and unmasking her and she was now no longer willing to use dirty tricks and treachery against him like she might have in the past because she didn't want to hurt him. God she was going soft. Was she unable to separate herself from Spade like she used to? No, apparently not... too much was at stake now.

The beep of her cell phone startled her out of her thoughts and she dropped the gloves she had picked up and ran over to her bedside table to pick it up.

"Hello?" She asked when she put the device to her ear.

"Hey." It was Roy finally. "What time is it there? It's close to one here. I didn't wake you up or anything did I?"

Tori couldn't help but smile when she heard his voice. He'd only been gone a few days but she still missed him. The kids at the center had been teasing her for acting 'Lovesick' as they called it.

"It's not even ten o'clock." She told him as she went to the bathroom to put in her red contacts. "How was your trip? Do anything interesting?" Her tone clearly told him that she knew exactly what had transpired in the last few days.

"It went well." He said lightly and she could just imagine the smirk on his face. She wished she could be there with him so she could slap it off of his face.

"You're not hurt are you?" She asked sternly.

"Tori I'm fine. I promise." He replied and she pursed her lips as she leaned toward the mirror and put in one of her red contacts.

"Alright. What time are you in tomorrow?"

"My flight doesn't get in until close to two in the afternoon. So we'll have to put off lunch for another day."

Aw. And tomorrow was supposed to be the day you finally let the press know about little old me." She said sarcastically. They had tried keeping their relationship secret and keep the press out of things, but their last date had been intruded upon by a reporter from the Daily Planet who had been visiting Star City and had recognized Roy. It had been pure coincidence that Clark Kent had been at the same restaurant that they had been with his colleague Lois Lane.

The couple had promised the two reporters and exclusive interview but only on the condition that the relationship was kept quiet until the story was out. Tori wasn't happy about it and was less so when she heard Roy laugh on the other end of the line. "You were so looking forward to that weren't you?"

"Like the Joker looks forward to Arkham. I can't wait to have paparazzi following my every move." She replied sarcastically as she put in her second contact. She blinked and straightened up. She was almost ready to go all she had to do was grab the gloves she had dropped. She made sure her wig of white hair was on properly then headed back to her bedroom.

"I'm sure they'll get bored quick enough. They always do. Look I have to go. I have to get ready for the thirteen hour flight back, I'll drop by the center to see you when I get in tomorrow."

"Okay... Don't do anything stupid." She warned.

"I won't. See you tomorrow."

Tori waited until he hung up before she did as well. She had wanted to tell him that she loved him or missed him before he'd cut the call, something that she heard other couples say often, but she couldn't bring herself to do it. She cared for him enough to say it and mean it but was too embarrassed to. She didn't know if he felt as strongly as she did and she had never really been very good at discussing her feelings with anyone. And judging by Roy attitude and personality, he wasn't either.

With a sigh she pulled on her gloves and made sure she had everything. Then she left her apartment through the fire escape. She only had a few hours before she had to appear as Spade and steal another artifact. The note had been sent out and the police were expecting her. She didn't want to be late and disappoint them.

Spade let out a huff as she landed on a building close to the center where her daytime counterpart worked. The job had been too easy tonight. No superheroes had showed up to try and stop her, which was rare. As such she had been able to avoid police expertly and dame away with the small vial she held in her hand. The bottle itself was very lovely to look at but it was what was in the bottle that was important. It was called 'Spirit Water' and like most of the artifacts she was required to steal it was rumored to have mystic properties.

"I wonder what kind of magic power such a little bottle of water could have." She muttered to herself. She sat on the edge of the roof she was on and huffed. She really needed to get out of this business but she needed the money for her medication and maintenance on her arm. Speaking of, she pulled off her glove and pulled open a small compartment in the wrist of her prosthetic arm. Inside was a small bag with two of her pills. She pulled the bag out and popped the medication into her mouth. She then put the bag in her pocket and stashed her loot for the night in the compartment and shut it, pulling on her glove again.

Spade stood from her perch and got ready to head home, she wanted to make sure she got a decent amount of sleep before work the next day. However before she could take more than a few steps she heard someone call out from the street below and she paused because she thought she recognized the voice. A frown worked its way onto her face as she turned and tried to find the source. It seemed to becoming from the direction of the center.

Did someone break in? Or was one of the kids shooting hoops after hours? She sighed and headed over to check it out.

After jumping across a few of the buildings she was on top of the center roof looking around. The sound of someone shouting drew her attention to the basketball court behind the building and this time she was sure she recognized the voice.

"Someone help!" Dominic called as he was backed into a corner by two large looking men. He looked awful, his clothes were ripped and torn in several places, his lip split and blood was trickling from a cut on his fore head into his eye.

"Shut it kid. Just keep still so we can get this over with."One growled as he pulled a knife from his pocket.

Spade stood frozen where she watched the ordeal. Her body wouldn't move an inch and her voice seemed to have died in her throat. What could she do? She wasn't a fighter, she was far better at running. But if she didn't move, didn't help, Dominic would die. She felt her eyes widen as the man holding the knife raised it slightly and suddenly her body was moving again.

"Dom run!" She screamed as she leapt from the building.

The two men who had cornered the child jumped at her sudden appearance but it was too late, the knife had already sunk between the boy's ribs, likely puncturing his lungs. As she touched the pavement she saw Dominic collapse to the ground unmoving. She was aware of the two men watching her warily but her eyes were fixed on the small child who was crumpled in a tangled heap on the ground. She heard the men talking and subconsciously tuned into the conversation.

"... he said no witnesses." One said and suddenly Spade's red eyes locked onto them and they both froze under her gaze.

Spade made a growling noise in the back of her throat and she narrowed her eyes dangerously as she took a menacing step forward. At the same time she drew the gun she kept at her hip and aimed it at the men. "Alright, start talking who put you up to this!" She snapped.

Neither of them men answered but one suddenly lunged at her. She fired off three shots, all missing their target before the gun jammed, becoming useless. With an enraged snort she tossed it aside and rolled out of the way of the knife that was coming for her face. She knew she was in trouble, there was no way that she could fight off two men who appeared to be hired assassins, or at the very least hired thugs. But she was too mad to care.

An idea came to her when the second man, a large brute with a dirty mullet, lunged at her grabbing for her throat. As she ducked under 'Mullet's' arm she passed into his beefy shadow and as her eyes turned black she sunk through it and appeared behind his partner. She grabbed him by the back fo his shirt and quickly sunk through the darkness again, dragging him along with her. When she reappeared he was gone, lost in the darkness forever.

"What the hell are you?" Mullet yelled when he realised what had happened and that he was alone.

"Who hired you?" She snapped back, completely ignoring his question. "Why did you just murder a ten year old child?" She disappeared from in front of him and reappearing behind him with a knife to his neck. It was the same knife his partner had been using before she had taken if from him in the darkness.

"I don't know his name! He said he was with the Shadows!" Mullet cried in a panic. "The kid's old man was giving information to the Justice League about the Shadows plans. He paid us to get rid of the kid to make sure he understood the consequences of going against them."

Spade frowned. She knew Dominic's father had worked for the Shadows as an information broker. But he was still just an underling; he gathered information for the Shadows not on them. Well at least now she knew how the heroes were finding out about the jobs she didn't advertise.

"C'mon I told you what you wanted to know. Let me go. I swear I won't do it again." He pleaded and Spade slowly removed the knife from his neck and he sighed in relief.

Spade didn't let his relief last and grabbed his arm to pull him within the darkness along with his former comrade. When she reappeared alone she walked over to the fallen boy and sank to her knees.

"Oh Dom." She whispered trying to hold back a sob.

"Tori?"

Spade gasped when the child spoke and she reached out to touch him only to stop when she saw his laboured and shallow breathing.

"Tori?"He gasped again. "Is that you? I can't see well, everything is blurry."

"Yeah. Yeah Dom I'm here."She said and she could feel the tears in her eyes but refused to let them fall.

"It hurts to breath Tori."

"I know... I know Dom just keep relaxed. I'm going to call for help okay. Don't worry you'll be fine." She had to alert the police and an ambulance. Dominic needed medical attention and quickly. But she didn't have her phone and the payphone in the alley behind the center had been broken for longer than she had been working there.

The thief looked around desperate to find a way to help him and she caught sight of her pale reflection in a window. The center had a security system that would go off if the doors of the windows were broken open. In Spade's experience there was no faster was to get a cop's attention than setting off an alarm.

"Dom don't move, I'll be right back." She said kissing the boys forehead as she moved to stand. She took a few seconds to search around for something large and heavy enough to break the window. When she came across a large rock she threw it as hard as she could through the glass. The effect was instantaneous. The alarm blared and emergency lights flashed but she had gone back to Dominic rather than stay to listen to the racket.

"Okay Dom. There are going to be people coming to help soon." She said brushing hair from his face. Sticky red blood smudged on his forehead and stuck to her gloves when she did this and her breath caught in her throat, but she couldn't bring herself to stop the motion because it seemed to relax him. "You're going to be okay."

Spade sat there with him for a few minutes, saying nothing, just stroking his hair as she fought back the tears that wanted to fall. Help was coming, she could hear the police sirens getting closer and closer but in the back of her mind the knowledge that Dominic would not make it dwelled. His breathing was almost unnoticeable by now and his eyes were growing dimmer by the second. This would likely be the last time she would see him alive.

"I have to go." She whispered to him when the sirens got close enough. She couldn't stay, not dressed as she was or else she would be caught and unmasked.

"Stay." The child croaked. He was still conscious, but just barely.

"I'm sorry I can't." She said as she stood. She could hear footsteps approaching quickly. Loud voices of the police as they searched for the source of the alarm. She gave one last glance to Dominic, stifling a sob, then stepped away and vanished into the Shadows.

~O~

By the time morning came Tori had not slept at all. Which was unsurprising considering what she had witnessed just hours ago. It all seemed so unreal, as if it were just a bad dream that she would wake up from and everything would be alright.

She got ready for work numbly, as if the whole thing had become routine. She would be responsible for opening the center today and somewhere in the back of her mind she registered that the police would still be there looking for evidence at the center. They would probably want to question the workers. She needed to pull herself together.

She caught the bus to the center and when she stepped off of it she noticed that her assumption about the police being there was correct. There were cars everywhere and police tape surrounded the perimeter of the property. As she walked up one of the officers stopped her.

"Sorry miss but no civilians are allowed past here." He said looking at her warily as if she might attack him. That look was one Tori was used to getting because she lived on this side of town. However today she wasn't in the mood for it.

"I work here. What the hell is going on?" She asked.

"Calm down. He's just following protocol" Another officer said. This one was in a suit and she recognized him well.

"Detective Hyde." She said turning to the man. He often came to the center whenever any of the kids got into trouble, and some of them did it quite often. "Care to tell me why you've closed off my center?"

"It's not pretty Victoria. Before I let you go in I want to ask you some questions." Detective Hyde said motioning for her to follow him over to one of the cars. She scowled mostly because he had used her given name and followed him over.

"What is it Hyde? The kids will be here soon it _is_ a Saturday." She said crossing her arms over her chest.

"Do the kids ever come here after hours?" Hyde asked ignoring her irritation with him.

"Yeah the basketball court is open all night but no one can get in the building. It gets locked up." She replied rubbing her head. She was too tired and a migraine was starting. Talking about the basketball court also reminded her why she was talking to Hyde in the first place.

"Which kids come most often to play at night?"

"I don't know. We try to discourage them coming after dark because of the gang activity in these parts. I would guess that it is usually the boys though. Why what does this have to do with the police being here? Was there a break in or something?" She knew she was asking for what she didn't want to hear but she knew she needed to appear ignorant. Her head was screaming at her but she was adept at tuning herself out. Besides, the reality of things still had yet to hit her, Dominic could still be alive and they were just investigating

"I have one more question Victoria." The Detective said patiently. He motioned for her to follow him out back so she complied. "I want to ask you if you can identify a body for me. We don't know if you'll be able to but we can't get a hold of the family."

"Body?" She did her best to sound startled when on the inside she wanted to break down. It wasn't Dom she told herself. Maybe one of the thugs had escaped the darkness and died from the exposure."What is going on Hyde!"

"Just do this for me okay. We didn't want to move the body until you got here and besides we had some complications with the investigation. Black Canary and Green Arrow showed up in response to the alarm going off and found him first." He grumbled and Tori knew then that paramedics hadn't even been able to make it to the scene to try and save Dominic. He had died after she left, before the cops even found him.

"Fine." She sighed as they rounded the corner. She saw the white sheet that covered the body and several officers standing around it along with the figures of Black Canary and Green Arrow. She didn't even look at the heroes, her eyes trained on the sheet.

"Okay, everyone back up." He called and stepped forward as the others backed away from the body. "Victoria, come over here."

She walked over, swallowing thickly, trying to mentally prepare herself. She hoped against all odds that it really wasn't Dominic, that another violent crime had taken place afterwards. But when the sheet came up she knew she was wrong and her breath left her as if she had been punched. Reality crashed around her and her legs gave out underneath her when she saw the corpse. He really was gone.

Someone caught her before she hit the ground and set her gently on her knees, she heard Hyde speaking to her but she could hardly here him. "It's Dom." She whispered as tears finally escaped her eyes. She had been trying so hard not to break down but seeing the child laying there cold and pale with death, her emotions overruled what she wanted.

"So this is Dominic Sawyer?" Hyde asked and Tori nodded numbly and buried her face in her hands. She couldn't look at him like that. Just a few hours ago he had been breathing. In pain and injured but still breathing now he was as still as stone, his dark skin looking ghastly.

"Come on let's get you out of here." A motherly voice said beside her. Someone touched her shoulder and pulled her to her feet.

Tori brought her hands away from her face and looked into the eyes of Black Canary who looked almost as pained as Tori felt. But when she studied the woman's face recognition sparked and her eyes widened. Canary's eyes widened too as if she had just realized something.

"You-" Tori began shock temporarily overcoming her grief. "Dinah!" She whispered. Canary's eyes widened more and then softened. The blond woman nodded and Tori somehow felt relief.

"Tori I'm sorry." She said and Tori wasn't sure what she was sorry for but she turned and hugged the woman, burying her head in her shoulder to hide more tears that leaked out of her eyes. She felt Canary's arms wrap around her and a hand rubbed her back in a soothing manner.

She knew she should be more shocked that Roy's foster father's girlfriend was a hero even more shocked when her muddled mind pieced together that Green Arrow was probably Oliver, but right now she couldn't bring herself to care. Dominic was gone. The young boy who loved playing basketball and always wore her hat, always had a toothy smile to brighten her day, was gone. She finally let the dam inside her break and she just cried.

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><p>...*sniff* *sniff* Poor Tori... Poor Dom. And on top of all that shit going down she figures out the identities of Canary and GA. She was actually supposed to figure that out in the last chapter when she found out Roy was Red Arrow but I decided that it would be more believable and less Mary Sue if she were to get a actual good look at Canary's face (She really never got to before, she was always running away not looking at her face.) since she had already met Dinah. It's not hard to piece together who GA is after that... especially with the beard.<p>

SEVEN REVIEWS! Sorry guys but to me that's a lot, especially since all of them were so nice. A few made me laugh. So I think a round of applause is in order for lolmak, Azulish(I replied to this review since it was so long but I'm not sure if you replied since my Private Messaging is down.), fmafreak13 (SO sexy smooth XD), Chances vs Pills, cullenett, Ghost and MidnightRoulette. (This was one of the ones that made me laugh. Especially the cuuuuute part). Thanks so much guys! I love you all!

By the way I've been thanking a person called anon in some of my chapters. It took me up until a few days ago to realize that anon is short for anonymous. *Facepalm* I'm an idiot. I totally blame KF... he's starting to rub off on me. Actually he'd probably get that quicker than I did. Anyway...

Also guys remember when I mentioned YJ cookies a few chapters back? I wasn't joking. I actually made cookies to look like the YJ cast. My mom does wedding cakes sometimes so we have a lot of decorating stuff for pastries and cakes. I'm going to make the again and take a picture to show you all.

Okay I think that's the end of my rant for today. Please review guys, I have most of the chapters for the next while planned out but I'm open to any ideas you may have! Also reviews inspire me to write more (I have a spaz attack every time i see a new one and feel the need to alert my Mother every time.) so please give me feed back!

~Peter


	6. Gone too soon

**Hey guys!~ I meant to get this chapter up like two days ago... But then my computer went all stupid and the screen crapped out. I thought my computer had died and I was very upset because I did not want to rewrite this chapter. I kind of wrote it after not sleeping for close to 36 hours and couldn't remember what I had written after I passed out. Don't worry I reread it and it makes sense.**

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own Young Justice. However I own Tori, Spade and poor little Dom. May he rest in peace. T_T  
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><p>Star City<p>

Lincoln Community Center

September 10th 14:56 PDT

Tori wasn't entirely sure when Roy got to the center, only that she had been there for several hours being questioned over and over again by the police. Canary and Green Arrow had left long ago after making sure she wouldn't break down again. She had sobbed until all of her tears had dried up and a sort of calmness came over her. She knew from experience that she was in shock and until Roy got there she hadn't really cared.

The moment she saw her boyfriend however she nearly began sobbing again. But she managed to hold it together long enough for him to reach her and pull her into a hug. He didn't need her to tell him what was going on. He had gotten that call from Dinah almost an hour ago at the exact moment he had gotten off of his plane. He didn't wait to take his things home; he drove straight to the center to see what was going on for himself.

"Tori I..." He trailed off, he wasn't quite sure what to say to her. He wasn't sure there was anything he _could_ say to her. It's not like anything he said would make the situation any better.

"I'm fine." She said quietly into the fabric of his shirt but there was no conviction in her voice and the shaking that racked her body clearly told him that she was not fine at all.

"Do you want me to take you home?" He asked. She didn't really look like she could make it there alone, not that he was going to leave her alone in this state anyway.

Slowly Tori began to nod, she did want to go home. She wanted to curl up on her couch and eat cookie dough that Jade made her like she did whenever Tori had a bad day. But something stopped halfway her through her motion. There were several things wrong with wanting to do that. First was that if Jade were in her apartment she felt certain Roy would recognize her and that would just make a bad day worse. Second, her apartment was a mess. Normally she wouldn't have cared about that but this mess consisted of her Spade uniform and a bloody mess in the bathroom from when she had started choking up blood after using her power too much in one night. It had been a miracle she had been able to get up and walk that morning.

"I... no. Can we go to your place?" She asked her voice coming out rough and scratchy. If her voice sounded as bad as she though it did she absently wondered how her face looked. Probably puffy, red and altogether unattractive. A giggle escaped her mouth and even to her it sounded a bit hysterical. God she was losing it.

"Sure Tori. Let's go." Roy released her from his hug and wrapped an arm around her to lead her to the car.

"Hey Victoria!"

Tori turned briefly to look at detective Hayes who was briskly walking over to her after talking with Mike, the manager of the center. "What is it Hayes, I'm tired I don't want to answer any more questions."

"I know, I'm sorry. But after we're done examining the body we need to release him to someone. His dad is missing as of this morning. Did the kid have any other family?" Hyde asked seriously.

"_Dominic-_" she stressed his name. "Does not have any other family. I can take care of the funeral arrangements."

"Are you sure you want to do that?" Hyde asked glancing to Roy momentarily when the red head's arm tightened around her.

"Yeah. I need to do something for him." She said looking at her feet. _I couldn't do anything to save him. It's the least I can do._ She thought closing her eyes. She had a headache.

"Then I'll have to call you to get the paperwork signed later." The detective said with a nod. He shuffled awkwardly then headed off to talk to someone else.

Tori sighed and opened her eyes. She looked up at Roy who was staring at her in concern. "Sorry. Let's go."

~O~

"Tori... I know you're not alright please talk to me." Roy said once he had gotten her settled at his apartment. And by settled that mean she was curled next to him on the couch with her eyes closed and her mind running a mile a minute.

"I... I just... I could have done something to help him." She said more to herself than him.

"Tori I know it's hard but there really is nothing that you could have done." He told her gently.

"But I could have..." She trailed off. "I could have made stricter rules about playing there after dark. I shouldn't have allowed them to be there, gone to check to make sure, _something_." She should have done something aside from sit there like a stunned animal. She could have shadow ported down there to get him out of the way she could have actually moved to save him. But she had waited until it was too late to do anything.

It was her fault that Dominic was dead. That was the thought that had been running through her head all day. She had been there and had been unable to save him.

Roy looked down at her and sat up slightly so that he could lift her face so she could look at him. "Listen to me Tori, even if you had been there was probably nothing you could have done. Even if you're a superhero you can't save everyone, there is always going to be that one person you can't save. You can beat yourself up over it but that's not going to help anyone but the villains. You can't blame yourself for something that was outside of your control." He told her.

Tori stared at him for a long moment and a tear ran down her cheek. She didn't want to admit he was right but she knew he was. It wouldn't stop her from blaming herself. Certainly not, at least not now. But he seemed to know what he was talking about.

"Have you... I mean..." She didn't want to say it, in case it brought up bad memories.

"Thankfully no. Not yet anyway. But I know enough people who have." He said. "Now you should do something to take your mind off of this. Just for tonight."

"Okay." She agreed. She didn't want to forget but she needed to do something to do so she could keep her sanity. She couldn't just sit around and mope. "What exactly did you have in mind?"

~O~

Tori had spent three days at Roy's apartment too drained of everything to allow him to take her home. She'd had more activity in the last few days than she would have liked. There were funeral arrangements to make and meetings with the police to sign papers so they could allow the body of Dominic to pass into the custody of the funeral home through her. That wasn't even including the news reports that were going wild over the story. It wasn't the fact that a young child had been murdered that garnered the attention, it was because Spade had been caught on the center's security tapes taking down the men who did it. It disgusted Tori to think that the general population was more interested in the thief than the child. Even if that thief was her.

She wished that for only a moment things would just slow down so she had a minute to think. She was grateful that Roy helped keep everything together for her. Without him she was sure she would have fallen apart after the news report came out.

Tori wasn't sure what to do about anything anymore, but she her mind was clear on one thing at least. She needed to get out of the Shadows. They were the ones who had caused all of this turmoil for her. She had known that the Shadows killed people, her best friend was their assassin, but she had never been directly affected by it until now. So she had turned a blind eye. She couldn't do that anymore and she knew the perfect way to let them know she was out.

This was why she stood on the roof of the building across from the Hartsfield Museum, the site of her last burglary, the one that had been on the same night Dominic had died. She was dressed in her Spade uniform, cleaned of the bloodstains from her last outing and in her hand she held the vial of 'Spirit Water' that she had taken.

She intended to return the piece to its rightful place in the museum. It wouldn't make up for the mistakes she had made in the past but it was a start. Returning it also sent a message to the Shadows, one she wanted them to hear loud and clear which was why when she slipped through security she left a note in the case beside the vial.

_To the Shadows who have controlled me for far too long. Find a new puppet, from now on I'm pulling my own strings. Spade_

She stared down at the note and the vial for a second longer. She'd make things right again. She would make up for everything she had done in the name of the Shadows if it was the last thing she would do. They were going to come after her, she knew it for a fact, and no one betrayed the Shadows and lived. The only thing that gave her solace was that the only person in the Shadows who knew her identity was Jade, but even that might not save her. Jade's loyalties and Tori's were a bit different, so there was never the guarantee.

Now there was just the matter of retrieving the other objects she had stolen and bringing them back as well.

Star City

St. James Graveyard

September 14th 13:07 PDT

Tori looked out at the crowd of people gathered around the grave site. Many of them she didn't know. Of course the press were still covering the story and she was uncomfortable as she stood at the head of the congregation with Roy at her side. Occasionally a picture was snapped of them and she would feel anger flare in her chest. She knew that the next headline of the paper would be about Roy Harper's latest 'fling'. Frankly it pissed her off and if it hadn't been for his hand firmly around hers she would have snapped at the photographers sooner.

She cleared her throat when the priest next to her motioned for her to speak. She was the closest thing to family Dominic had here so it was her responsibility to give something of a eulogy.

"Dominic was..." She began quietly as she stared at the ground. There was a cough from someone in the crowed and she began again. "Dominic was more than just another child who visited our community center. He was very much like a little brother to me, and to the other kids as well. We were and still are a family there. Dominic will be missed dearly I know I can say that for all of us."

"It was wrong and unfair that such a young boy was taken away from us in the manner that he was and I hope that whoever is responsible receives justice. But today is not for them. Today is for Dom. He was bright and always laughing no matter what, he never held a grudge against anyone. We have to remember him for what he was, not for the way he died. I know he would want us to smile because he is still with us in our hearts. I know I will never forget him."

Tori took a deep breath when she finished and squeezed Roy's hand for support. People around them murmured goodbyes and laid roses out on top of the casket, their final gift to the boy who had lost his life too early. Tori waited until the last person left and instead of a rose placed the ball cap she always let Dominic wear on top of the flowers. She had been going to give it to him for his birthday in a few months, but now he'd never turn eleven. She wiped some moisture from her eyes and turned away from Roy so he didn't see. She cried enough in front of him already.

"Roy... can I be alone for a minute?" She asked quietly when she turned back. "I'll meet you at the car."

Silently he nodded, leaning forward to kiss her forehead affectionately before he left the site. She smiled after him. The last five days he had been doing such things more often than he usually did. It was out of character for someone who was usually so serious. She knew he did it because he understood that she needed him close, she wasn't going to let anyone else go.

When he was out of sight she turned back to the casket and stare down at it. "You can come out now." She called loudly.

Out from behind a nearby tree stepped a tall man with dark skin and receding hair. He was a handsome man and Dominic had gotten his good looks. If he had been allowed to grow up he would have looked just like, Alex, his father.

"You knew I was there the whole time?" He asked, his deep voice laced with sadness and what could have been fear.

"I know a lot of things... Why did you give the Justice League information about the Shadows? It's because of your stupidity that your son was targeted." She asked in an icy tone. She knew she shouldn't blame him, it was just as much her fault Dominic was dead, she could have saved him had she acted sooner, but she didn't care.

"Everything I did was to protect my son." Alex said lowly but Tori could tell that he was angry. "I didn't want him growing up and turning out like me. A man with no options. I had no idea that this would be the consequence."

"You should have known the Shadows would target you and your family."She said quietly.

"How do you know all this?"

"It would be best if I didn't tell you. They're hunting me too. I would get out of town if I were you. Contact the League, they'll probably help." She warned him s she turned to look him in the eye.

"And what about you? Are you running?" He asked watching her warily.

"No. I have unfinished business I have to take care of. Besides they don't yet know who I am." She gave a cold smile. "Now leave before someone comes and recognizes you."

"Thank you. For trying to help my son." Alex turned and left. Tori too turned in the direction she had to go to get to Roy's car. Today had been far too long and it wasn't even two o'clock yet. She needed rest and plenty of it, especially for what she had planned for tomorrow night.

Star City

Location Classified

September 15th 00:26 PDT

No one knew she was here, and that was just how she had wanted it. If anyone knew she was lurking in the halls of this place she would be killed on sight. As it was she was glad she had been able to memorize the timing of the rounds that the guards took or this might have been harder.

Silently she made her way down another corridor, stopping only to hide as a guard rounded the corner. She sucked in her breath and held it, not daring to move until he had passed and then she was speeding back down the hall as fast as she could, the duffel bag that was slung over her shoulder slapping against her side.

Spade knew that the next hall she would pass through would be her last. She half expected there to be more guards around to... well guard things, but there were none. The lax security made her uneasy but there were no signs of a trap at all, besides no one would be expecting her to be here of all places. Even if she was dressed as Spade.

At the end of the hall Spade had to pause to pick the lock on the door. This was probably the hardest part of her self-assigned mission because if she didn't do this carefully it would alert the guards to her presence and she wanted to avoid that at all costs.

Finally she the lock clicked and Spade eased the door open, peeking her head inside she noticed that the area was clear and stepped in her head swiveling to look around at the numerous selves that stocked various different items. There were swords, guns, pieces of artwork but that wasn't what the thief cared about. What she cared about was the small collection of mystic items that were kept on a shelf near the back of the room. On this set of shelves sat every item she had ever stolen, there were forty three in all and it was lucky all of them were small or they would not have fit into her duffel bag.

Gently she scooped up each item and put it in the bag while moving as quickly as she could. The last place she wanted to be found was in the League of Shadow's treasure room, otherwise known as the Vault.

Just as she was putting the last item in the bag Spade heard a noise from the front of the Vault and she stiffened, listening for another sign that someone was there. This time she heard the door creak and a loud voice call down the hall. The picked lock had been discovered and by extension her. She zippered up her bag and with a mighty heave picked it up and put the straps over her shoulders. It was heavy but she needed to get out of here fast.

A blast of a gun startled her and she turned in time to have a bullet go right through itself in her right arm instead embedding itself in the small of her back. She cried out in pain but bit her lip to silence the cry as the guard wielding the gun approached her. Why hadn't they shot the fake arm!

"It's Spade!" The man cried out into the hallway, "Spade has broken into the vault!"

She ran at him while he was distracted and swung her left hand at him. The sound of metal meeting bone was heard and the man crashed to the ground unconscious but the damage was done. She could hear people yelling and running down the hall straight for her. She didn't panic; instead she took a deep breath and slipped back a step. More gunmen came into her sight and they began firing. Their bullets met empty space. Spade had already disappeared and along with her some of the most valuable objects in the world.

The leader of the Shadows, Ra's al Ghul, would be out for her blood after this stunt.

* * *

><p>I am so sorry guys! I didn't mean to make you cry last chapter! Don't be mad at me, it had to be done! Seriously though, I knew Dom was going to die the moment I created him, he was supposed to be close to Tori and die so she could have an epiphany about her double life and decide to rebel against the Shadows. I doubt that makes you guys feel better though. Again I'm sorry for making you guys cry.<p>

On the upside of things I got ten reviews! They just keep multiplying every chapter! It's great! So big thanks to everyone who reviewed and because you're all so awesome the next chapter is going to be dedicated to you all. So thanks to Ghost, RunningQueenx5, lolmak, BookwormStrawberry, rogue4ever, MidnightRoulette (Go read her YJ story it's pretty awesome!), Azulish, fmafreak13, Chances vs Pills(You've realized something that is going to give me great enjoyment in future chapters.) and ImmatureChild(I'm glad you find Tori realistic. I'm trying my hardest to make her seem real to everyone and not make her a Sue... If she every becomes like that I'll kill her myself.)

Okay moving on!~ I may not update for a little bit. I have to go and get a new computer sometime this week because my current one is nearly ready for the trash heap. Also I think I'm going to take a break from my other story 'Unbreakable' for a bit. it's not as popular as this one and I'd like to focus more on writing this. It's hard to go back and forth between two stories!

~Peter


	7. Xscape

**Chapter Seven!~ Woo!~ Sorry it took a little bit of a wait to get this out but as I said in the last chapter my computer kind of died. Yeah she's completely dead now. My she rest in peace. But on the upside I got a fancy new computer... and the first two seasons of Paranormal State. **

**As I mentioned in my last chapter I'm dedicating this chapter to everyone who has reviewed. This one is for you guys even if it is a bit short.  
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**Disclaimer: I don't own YJ but I do own Tori and Spade. Please don't use without my permission or I'll become a Peter-saurus Rex! RAWR!  
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><p>Star City<p>

Roy's apartment

September 20th 18:07 PDT

"-and in other news, the city's resident bandit, Spade, has pulled a complete one eighty from a few weeks ago when she was running from the police for stealing yet another allegedly magical artifact. Police have been speculating as to why Spade has made such a turnaround but nobody can quite understand what her motive could be.

"In the past five days alone Spade has returned eight of the items she had stolen in the past year. All with apology notes and taunts to the League of Shadows who it appears she was working for. Even more interesting is that Spade appears to have stopped several crimes ranging from muggings to petty thefts during the nights she had returned the artifacts. It seems-"

"Roy turn that off." Tori sighed looking up from the book she was reading on the couch. Roy was at the opposite end, her feet in his lap as he watched the news that he had already seen repeated on four other news channels earlier in the evening. The same story had been running for the past five days since Spade had left her first note to the shadows and returned the item she had stolen. I had hardly changed any and the report was beginning to grate in her nerves, especially since they should be running stories about other things. Like how the investigation of the murder of a ten year old boy was going.

Of course Tori already knew how that investigation was fairing. Nowhere. The police had found hard evidence incriminating two men days ago but the men were nowhere to be found and Tori was the only one who knew why. It gave her a sick sort of satisfaction knowing what she did and yet she still felt disgusted with herself she had essentially killed two men, wiped them off of the face of the planet in a moment of rage. It terrified her to think that she was capable of such a thing.

She felt Roy shift and flick off the news cast. "I was hoping they would have new information."

"Wouldn't you know if there were any new developments in the case before the news crew?" She asked raising an eyebrow and gave him a grin. "I mean Oliver and Dinah are looking into this and found nothing. I doubt you'll find out why Spade does what she does what she does unless you can get her to tell you outright."

She had taken the information about Green Arrow's and Black Canary's secret identities rather well considering everything that had been happening when she figured it out. But then again Tori still wasn't feeling quite like her usual self. It had only been six days since they had buried Dominic, ten since he was murdered in front of her. She still wasn't over it and at random points in the days since she would feel the overwhelming urge to cry whenever something reminded her of his chubby little self. Roy was a helpful distraction most of the time, which was why she was still at his apartment.

"Trust me Green Arrow has tried to track her down to ask and so has Canary. They're willing to give Spade the benefit of the doubt and believe she's really turned herself around, but I'm not so sure."

Tori nearly winced at his words but kept a straight face as she set her book down. His words hurt, but she had been expecting them. She knew he didn't trust any villain as far as he could throw them, even if they seemed to have turned good. She could understand why too.

"Keep an open mind Roy. You never know why anyone does what they do... unless you can read minds of course." She said. She sat up as she did and looked at her watch. It was getting late into the evening and Roy was going on patrol later. He would have to get ready soon.

"I'm going to head home. You need to prep yourself for a long night." She said getting to her feet. She didn't want to go but she had some errands to attend to later that night too and a long nap beforehand would do her a world of good.

"Do you want me to drive you back?" He asked. She could see the concern on his while he followed her over to the door. She grabbed her purse and turned to face him.

Slowly she stood on her tiptoes and kissed him gently. Butterflies erupted in her stomach when he kissed her back and wrapped his arms around her waist. It had only been in the last few days that they had kissed like this. Before it had all been small pecks and brief kisses, but Tori was tired of playing it safe and slow. She needed a way to show him that she really cared for him. He really hadn't complained about it at all.

"I'll call you when I get back okay. Don't worry so much." She told him when they broke apart. He didn't look entirely convinced but nodded and let her go. She smiled at him, flattered by his slight over protectiveness of her, especially after the last week and a half. If only he knew as much about her as she did of him. She wondered if he'd be so protective then. She wasn't entirely sure she wanted to find out.

~O~

As soon as Tori had closed the door of her apartment she heard something whistle through the air towards her. This something caught the edge of her jacket in several places and pinned her to the door several more pinned her by her clothes in other places. Another landed next to her face , drawing a thin red line on her cheek. She turned her head slightly to look at the shrunken and felt blood drip down her chin. She felt fear flutter in her chest as she looked around the dark room. Had she been found out? Did the Shadows know who she was?

"You know Tori, I have orders to kill you on sight." Jade's voice said through the dim light and the woman stepped forward so Tori could see her. Tori's fear abated a little but it was still present. She stared hard at Jade, their eyes meeting through the Cheshire mask.

"You know I was expecting them to send you sooner. You are the only one who knows my identity." Tori said forcing her voice to seem calm and casual. Jade sighed and pulled off her mask, sending Tori a dirty look.

"Do you know how much trouble you're in right now?" She snapped angrily, pointing her collapsible sword at her friend threateningly. "Ra's has half of his best assassins out after you. Even Sportsmaster has been notified of your betrayal."

Tori could hear the strain in Jade's voice when she spoke of Sportsmaster and Tori herself felt fear at the mention of his name. They each had reason to fear the man, there was a reason the two had run away together all those years ago. Only to be roped back in to what they had been trying to escape.

"I had to do it Jade. I'm sick and tired if running around doing their dirty work and looking over my shoulder every time the police walk by. I didn't want to do it in the first place but I had to." Tori said reaching to the shrunken and pulling them from her jacket. They clattered to the floor and Jade did nothing to stop her.

"You know you are still going to have to keep looking over your shoulder. The Shadows will not stop looking for you, ever." She warned.

"Good for them. They'll never find me. After I return all of the artifacts I'm retiring as Spade. All the evidence will be destroyed, maybe I'll even leave the city, go back to Gotham for a little while. It'd be safer there than here." She shrugged and crossed her arms over her chest.

The last place she wanted to be was Gotham, there were too many memories there, and not memories of the nice kind. There was a reason she was living in Star City by herself with only Jade as a connection to her past.

"What about that boyfriend of yours? What are you going to tell him about spontaneously moving away? You can't just leave when the press is all over your relationship, it'll be suspicious."

Tori sighed and rubbed her head. She hadn't thought of that, to be entirely honest she hadn't really thought out her plan past returning the artifacts. How would she explain why she wanted to leave to Roy? Did she even want to leave, especially with him here? There were too many questions that needed to be answered and Jade seemed to know that she didn't have any of the answers.

"Well what ever you decide just know that they _will_ have me hunting you. And I can't hold back when you go out as Spade." Jade warned her.

"I know"

"I might have to kill you."

"I know, Jade, I know. You can't betray the Shadows like I have, you have a lot more at stake than I do. They know who you are." Tori said, her cold expression softening a bit.

Jade's expression didn't change but she nodded. The two watched each other for a moment before Jade moved toward the door, putting on her Cheshire mask as she did so.

"This will probably be the last time I can see you for a while." Jade said laying her hand on the door knob. She turned her head to look at her friend. "Since that's the case I need you to do something for me."

"That depends Jade." Tori said cautiously.

"It's nothing terribly hard. But if you ever do find yourself back in Gotham, can you make sure Artemis stays safe? She was a brat as a kid but I still don't want her dead. That is of course if you're not dead by then."

To say that Tori was surprised was a bit of an understatement. Jade hardly ever mentioned her little sister, but Tori knew for a fact that when her friends missions took her toward Gotham she always checked on the girl to make sure she was still alive and breathing. That Jade was asking her to keep an eye on her meant that she couldn't. The Shadows were sending her on a mission, or several missions that would preoccupy her for a while.

"I promise you Jade, even if I don't make any plans to go to Gotham I will make routine checks on her. I will keep her safe." Tori said, meaning it entirely.

She didn't see Jade nod but knew that she was grateful and it took the green clad assassin a long moment to say anything. "I'll hold you to that Tori." And then she was gone.

Star City

Star City Museum

September 27 00:09 PDT

The night was calm, no clouds or winds, just the clear night sky above. It was a perfect night for sneaking into the museum to return the Amulet of Anubis. Clear nights always meant more crime in the city, which by extension meant that cops would be busy elsewhere and Spade wouldn't have to worry about keeping on alert for the police nearing her location too rapidly.

Still Spade was cautious about entering the building and replacing the artifact to the pedestal in which it had rested before she had stolen it months ago. She smiled when it was back in the case and stood back to admire it for a second. But only a second because she knew she had to make it out of the building before the guards made their rounds.

Escaping the building before she was found out to have been there was an easy matter, just as entering had been and soon Spade was several roofs away. She didn't want to shadow travel if she didn't have to tonight. It would be nice not to feel sick the morning after a job for once. She was confident that she would not have to use her abilities and could get back to her apartment without them.

However when she had crossed a few more building a feeling of concern caused her to paused. She felt as if someone was watching her and she glanced around. She couldn't see anyone, but then again the Shadows were able to hide themselves well. She hadn't been confronted by an assassin yet but tonight was as good as any for them to come after her.

There was a low whistle behind her and she moved by reaction, ducking out of the way of a red fletched arrow so it struck the ground where she had just stood instead of her. When she saw it she sighed and felt her stomach clench. She really did not want to deal with this tonight.

When she turned, Red Arrow was already standing on the opposite side of the building from where she stood. His bow was drawn and she knew he would fire if she moved so much as a finger.

"You know, I'm not really in the mood to do this tonight Red." She said pretending to be bored.

"You're a wanted criminal. It really doesn't matter what you want." A new voice said and suddenly there was another red head on the scene, appearing from virtually nowhere. Spade recognized him almost immediately. It was Kid Flash, which meant that the junior Justice League Jade had told her about was probably close by.

"I'm straight now kid. Why do you think I'm returning everything I stole."

"Oh I'm so sure." A blond girl in a green outfit jumped to the building with a green skinned girl. Off to her left Spade saw three others appear. Two she recognized as Aqualad and Robin, the third she had never seen before. "People don't just leave the Shadows and decide to go clean."

"I did." Spade replied scanning the area around her and weighed her options for escape. Seven on one was hardly even but if she could manage to give them the slip she might be able to get away unscathed.

"How do we know this isn't some elaborate plan hatched by the Shadows or something?" Kid Flash asked crossing his arms.

"Trust me the plan that involved those artifacts was already elaborate enough." She said with a shrug. There was a low overhang from the next building to her left. If she could get into that shadow she could escape. She wasn't keen on feeling pain in the morning from using her powers but it seemed that there would be no avoiding it tonight.

"Why are we even bothering to talk to her? Let's just catch her , get the location of the other artifacts and hand her over to the police. She'll be unmasked by morning." The dark haired one with the red 'S' shield on his shirt said.

"My apologies, but I can't let you do that." Spade replied evenly however her insides were twisting uncomfortably with anxiety. "The Shadows don't know my civilian identity. If you unmask me then you're as good as killing me. Besides I'm going to return the artifacts myself."

Even as she spoke she was still trying to find an opening to run for the overhang. As she eyes moved around they caught sight of something off behind Red Arrow and her specialized contacts zoomed in to see what it was.

"Get down!" She shouted as a grenade flew over his head. She dove out of the way as it exploded and was sent rolling several feet to the right, away from her escape.

With her ears still ringing from the blast she sat up and looked around. The young heroes were picking themselves up off of the concrete just as she was and thankfully none of them seemed to be too hurt. She continued to let her eyes wander and felt her blood run cold when Cheshire walked out of the Shadows she was hoping to use to get the hell out of here.

"I told you I wouldn't go easy on you Spade." She said lowly while she pointed a clawed finger at her. Two other assassin appeared by her side. "No I'm going to get rid of you and these pesky heroes once and for all."

* * *

><p>Right so this one is a bit short. That's because it was getting too long and so I cut it in half. The other half will be chapter 8 which isn't entirely finished because there are some crucial points in it that have me at a stand still. Such as Roy's reaction to his girlfriend being Spade. Yeah that's right I'm a spoiler. Sorry guys but I really need some help with this. I'm uncertain how to make him react aside from getting mad. Of course he's going to be mad but I need a way to resolve it without being out of character. Man sometimes writing can be a pain.<p>

Moving on from that subject. I've been sick the past couple of days... as such I haven't slept a whole lot. So if this chapter looks a bit weird I claim total innocence. Also... I found out why I wasn't getting reviews or personal messages. In the Alerts section on my homepage under settings/guide I had reviews disabled to send to my email... I fail at life... again. Like seriously how did I miss that!

Big thanks to lolmak, fmafreak13, Chances vs Pills (That kiss up there was just for you BTW XD), RunningQueenx5, Abbie Brown, Bookworm Strawberry, amberBELA, ImmatureChild and satunisha. You guys totally rock.

Look out for the next chapter coming out soonish (whenever I get time to finish it) Also I'm have pictures of my YJ cookies that a friend and I made on Teusday. I'll give a link to the pictures in the next chapter! Lots of love guys!

~Peter


	8. Didn't Mean to Hurt You

**Hi Guys! It has been too long... even though it's actually only been like a week. This Chapter had actually been giving me some trouble because some major stuff goes down and a lot of explanations are made. I didn't want to make it sound cheesy or boring so it took me a little while to come up with the dialogue and stuff. I've actually been thinking about this chapter since the idea for this story first popped into my head. It was actually what sort of inspired me to put it done on paper, or in this case Word Document. **

**Huge thanks to Lycan Queen and all you guys who sent me ideas for this chapter, you were all a huge help even if your suggestions weren't used! This one is for you guys! You know who you are!  
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**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Young Justice or any variant thereof, I only own Tori, Spade, Dominic and my epic Batman shirt. I plan on going back to the store to get the sparkly Superman shirt soon.  
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**Enjoy!~  
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><p>Star City<p>

September 27th 00:41 PDT

Spade stared at Cheshire with fear written all over her face. She had not expected for the assassin to come after her so soon or why she was still in Star City to begin with. The thief could feel her insides squirming in anxiety and fright as she picked herself up off of the concrete roof and stood shakily on her feet. The kids too were standing, their attention now on Cheshire instead of her, each of them taking up a defensive position against Cheshire and her two assassin friends.

"What are you doing here?" The blond girl snapped at Cheshire.

"Oh how rude. And here I thought you'd all be so happy to see me after our play date was cut short last time. I especially missed you Red." Cheshire nearly purred and Spade felt a slight irritation some over her. Was Jade really flirting with her boyfriend? Of course neither of them was aware of the fact right now, what with the secret identities and all, but still. She had to repeat that to herself a couple of times. Jade didn't know, she didn't know. Nope, it still didn't make her feel any better.

"Hey weren't you about to assassinate me or something?" She asked crossing her arms over her chest and sending the green clad woman a pointed look.

"So eager to die?" Cheshire asked playfully.

"More eager to escape. I do have other things I could be doing right now." She replied.

"Man you weren't kidding." Robin said with a chuckle. "The Shadows really do want you dead. They don't send Cheshire after just anyone."

"I wouldn't go that far. This is kind of personal between me and her." Spade said with a frown on her face. "Now I'd absolutely love for this night to be over and a three way fight over who gets to capture and/or kill me sounds wonderful and all but I have a proposition for you kids. How about we call a truce and work together just this once."

"We don't make deals with villains!" Kid Flash shouted loudly.

"Enough chatter!" Cheshire snapped angrily She seemed to be getting agitated and letting them team up wasn't on her agenda. "Kill them all!"

The three assassins leapt into action and the young heroes reacted in kind as soon an all out battle was being waged on the rooftop. Spade considered that this was probably the best opportunity to make a run for it but something stopped her. She couldn't just leave these kids to fend for themselves, heroes or not, they were still kids. She wasn't a fighter but her overpowering maternal instinct wanted to argue against that.

A sudden, cool sensation around her middle startled her from her internal battle and she looked down to see what appeared to be glowing water wrapped around her middle just as it pulled her backwards. She stumbled back and the water retreated. She sent a quick thankful nod to Aqualad then narrowly ducked another slash at her head.

"Come on _Spade_! Fight back!" Cheshire taunted.

"In case you've forgotten Cheshire, I like to avoid physical confrontations if I can!" She shouted back and caught the sword that was aimed for her with her fake arm and kicked at the assassin's side. Cheshire moved a few steps back and made a tutting noise.

"Now, now no need to get violent. I'm sure you wouldn't be so problematic if I took that arm of yours!"

Cheshire darted forward faster than Spade could react and though she couldn't feel it the sound of metal sliding through metal was enough to tell her that her fake arm had just been damaged. She looked down where the sword was lodged near her shoulder, completely stunned. Her arm was nearly completely off, only hanging on by a few steel cords. She tried to make it move, but it didn't, Cheshire had severed the coils that responded to tje nerves and signals that came from her brain.

"My arm." She said hollowly. Dark visions swam across her mind and she hardly heard Cheshire chuckle as she was thrown back, her now useless arm flailing almost grotesquely as she rolled back a few feet.

"Not so lively without your arm are you? Brings back bad memories doesn't it?" Cheshire growled and Spade grit her teeth as she used her good arm to push herself up. Cheshire was already standing over her, her sword pointed at Spades face. The grinning cat mask she wore hid her expression but Spade could see in her eyes that she was both very angry and upset that things had come to this.

"You should have heeded my warning and stopped, made a run for it when I told you to. Maybe then you wouldn't be in this mess." She said, her voice unusually cold. Spade could tell she was angry with her. If only because they both knew it would come to this and could now do nothing to stop it. She watched as the sword was raised and closed her eyes. If this was her end she was almost glad it was Jade who would deliver the last blow, it wouldn't be painful that way, but she still didn't want to watch.

She waited for the blow that would end her life but instead she head a familiar twang, followed by the wound of Cheshire cursing and a sword falling to the ground. She risked opening one of her red eyes and saw that Red Arrow had knocked the sword away with one of his arrows and already had another ready to fire.

"Back away Cheshire." He growled and Spade felt her heart leap to her throat. "Your friends have been taken down. You're all alone."

Spade looked around and saw that the other assassins had indeed been tied up and were now unconscious. The other heroes stood around the men looking smug.

"Well if you insist." Cheshire said and swiftly drew something from her pocket. She threw it down and the area was engulfed in smoke. Spade could still see her, since they were close enough to each other to and Cheshire put a finger to her lips as she drew something else from behind her. It was an explosive.

Spade's eyes widened as she tossed it in Red Arrow's direction. She gasped and scrambled after it. She heard Cheshire laugh mysteriously as she caught the bomb just as it cleared the smoke and hurled it into the air. The following explosion knocked her right into Red Arrow, who was already too close to the edge of the building. She was saved the troubled of falling off of the edge, he wasn't. Spade abruotly twisted around to catch onto his arm with her good one.

"Roy no!" She yelled grabbing his wrist. She was nearly pulled off of the building too but she managed to avoid falling.

"Wait you-" Red Arrow seemed surprised as he looked up at her and immediately Spade realised her mistake. She had called him Roy, not Red. She hadn't even tried to masked her voice either, she had just reacted to the fact that he was in danger.

His eyes narrowed just as hers widened. He knew. He absolutely, undeniably knew. Her body began trembling violently and she wasn't sure if it was more from shock, fear or the strain of trying to hold him up with only one arm. He really was heavy.

"Red!"

Another arm came downnext to her and with the help of Aqualad and then Kid Flash she managed to pull Red Arrow back up onto the roof. She took a few steps back breathing heavily as Red Arrow's friends made sure he was okay, but he was staring directly at her the whole time.

"You." He growled dangerously, shaking off his friends. He took a step forward and she took one back and then another. She found herself in the shadow she had been going to use to escape earlier.

"I... I'm sorry." She whispered. Her whole body was still shaking, even as her eyes turned a solid black and she faded into the darkness.

By the time Roy reached her apartment Tori had already changed clothes and unattached her fake arm she would need to get it fixed before she could even think about using it again. The dark thoughts that had plagued her earlier swarmed her head again now that she could see it off.

_I don't want to! _

_Please I'm scared!_

_Daddy! Daddy help me, Da-_

Tori winced as a curdling scream filled her head and she could see dark flames around her. She would have covered her ears, only she couldn't. She stared blankly at the part of her shoulder where the metal attachments were grafted into her skin and nerves. Shea heard the door open loundly and she didn't even bother to look up. She knew who it was; she hadn't even bothered locking the door. It would be better for her to face him now instead of later.

"You know, I expected you to be here sooner." She said dryly glancing to Roy from the corner of her eye. He was still in his Red Arrow garb, his bow in his hand by his side instead of his quiver as if he was ready to use it. Tori felt a pain in her chest that had nothing to do with the use of her powers when she saw it and she looked away.

"Is that really all you have to say?" He growled and Tori could hear the overpowering anger in his voice. She felt like his tone should make her flinch or something but his anger was entirely deserved and she had been expecting it.

"Did you want me to say something else?" She knew she was treading on thin ice, playing coy like she was, but it was easier to pretend to be calm than give into her panic and let it take over.

"Oh I don't know! How about an explanation as to why you played me for nearly five months! Were you just using me to try and get secrets on the League or something?"

"I was not!" She snapped and looked at him straight in the face. "I never used you. Besides I never had any clue that you were Red Arrow when we first started dating."

This fact didn't seem to belay his anger at all. "Really? Then what about after? I bet you and your friends in the Shadows were laughing it up about how I actually _trusted _you."

She could practically hear the hurt and betrayal in his voice when he said those last four words even though he was trying to cover it with his anger.

"Roy please just listen to me for a second-" She began, losing the will to continue to act calm. Her emotions were beginning to overpower her desire to stay cool. She was angry, sad, guilty, confused, scared and a whole other mess of emotions inside and Roy really wasn't helping as he began pacing like a caged animal. She recognized it as something he generally did when he was frustrated or was over thinking something.

"Why should I? You're working for the _League of Shadows_! We've been sworn enemies for three years!" He snarled and this time she really did flinch.

"I told you I quit working for them!" She pleaded getting to her feet now too. She didn;t dare approach him, she knew better than that but she needed to defend herself, not sit helplessly oin her couch while he raged at her.

"How am I supposed to believe that! How am I supposed to know you weren't acting the whole time!"

"I wasn't!" She said she could feel the tears of sadness and frustration building up behind her eyes. "I-"

"Were you acting at being sad when Dominic dies too? After all, the Shadows were the ones who ordered that hit. You could have been in on it the whole time."

Now that was a low blow. Tori felt the tears she was trying to hold back fall down her cheeks at the same time her temper flared. The lights in the apartment seemed to flicker and dim for a split second as she sent him a deadly glare.

"I had nothing to do with that and you know it Roy Harper. I did everything I could to save that boy and it was by no choice of mine that I failed." She snapped. "Now sit down and let me explain myself, and keep your remarks to yourself until I finish."

To say that Roy was surprised would be a bit of an understatement. He had never seen her so angry before. Not even in her bouts of anger and depression after Dominic had died. This was a side of Tori that was very rarely seen. Of course she could see on his face that he wanted to snap back, that was the kind of personality that he had but instead he huffed moodily and sat in the arm chair that stood opposite the couch.

When Tori was sure that he would stay seated and quiet, at least for the moment, she felt her anger wilt and her shoulders sag a little. She was angry yes, but not as much as she was hurt by his comments. Hastily she used her sleeve to wipe her eyes then she too sat.

"Well, start talking. What's going on? Why did you do it?" Roy asked impatiently. She knew he wouldn't stay quiet for very long.

She sighed and rubbed her face tiredly. I wouldn't even know where to begin." She said flicking some hair from her face. She absently thought that she would have to get it cut soon, it was getting too long.

"What started all of this? How did you become Spade?" He prompted.

Tori looked up at the ceiling and pursed her lips in thought. "If we're talking about the stealing thing then it's been a while. I told you, I lived on the streets since I was twelve. I had run away from home with a friend who was in a similar familial situation. We relied on thievery to keep us alive. Of course she was better at it, I only had one arm at the time." She said gesturing to the broken prosthetic on the table. She knew there was and unasked question hanging in the air. How did she lose her arm? But that was another story for later. "Three years passed and we settled in Star City. We still stole to get by since Jade refused to belittle herself by begging or rooting through the trash."

"Wait a second Jade? The one that hosted that party?" Roy interrupted.

"That's the one. Though you should have figured out who she really is by now." Tori replied and she took a slight amusement in the stunned look on his face. He nearly leapt to his feet and started ranting again but Tori cut across before he could. "Let me finish explaining."

She waited for a moment, just to make sure he wouldn't start yelling again then continued.

"Before I started working at the community center Jade snuck into what we now know as a former League of Shadows headquarters. I was out elsewhere at the time, stealing of course and by that time I was clever enough to have begun wearing disguises. Jade wasn't, she was too confident in her skills. Of course when the Shadows found us just after I'd gotten back to our hideout later they were going to kill us. Somehow we managed to talk our way out of it. Jade was raised by a Shadows operative her whole life, and I was a Metahuman with a knack for theft. Instead of killing us they agreed to employ us. They ordered me to have this arm grafted on by means of an illegal surgery so I would not be hindered on missions. They still didn't know who I was so I took on the identity of Spade, just as Jade became Cheshire. She was my contact for jobs up until I quit."

"So let me get this straight. It was either join the Shadows or die right?" He said pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Right."

"And they accepted you because of your Metahuman ability that I'm only just learning about now."

"Correct."

"And they have had no idea what your real identity was for three years."

"Pretty much."

"Then why didn't you leave when you got your job at the center!" He exclaimed.

Tori sighed. She'd seen this one coming. "It's more complicated than that. I needed the money the jobs I got provided, working at the center didn't even cover a portion of my expenses."

"What do you mean? How is it complicated? Couldn't you have just gotten another job?" He asked clearly confused and annoyed. At least he had calmed down a bit.

"It still wouldn't have covered it. I mean, if I could have I totally would have. The thought did cross my mind. But I couldn't. After I started doing jobs for the Shadows I had to use my ability a lot more. I can transport myself through shadows, you saw me do it earlier, that's how I always managed to get in and out of buildings so fast when my missions started going downhill. But the ability is stressful to my body, more so because as a child I had respiratory problems. The more I use it the worse those problems seemed to get." She explained calmly.

"I don't get it. What does this have to do with the money?" Roy sighed, he seemed to be resigned to the fact that he was going to listen to her whole story.

"Like I said I had to use the ability more. About four months after joining the Shadows my respiratory problem became worse. A lot worse. I got really sick after a mission. I don't really remember much about it, only that there was a lot of blood. Jade found me and I woke up in a hospital the next day. The doctors told me that my lungs had somehow been constantly compressed and as a result they were beginning to fail. It would have been fine for a normal person with a healthy body, like scuba diving, but because my lungs were already frail and had been compressed so much and so often it resulted in a potentially fatal illness." She looked at her hand as she spoke. Even Jade did not know that her 'illness' could prove to be fatal if not reversed. She had told her that it was just an unfortunate and painful side effect of her power. "There is supposedly no way to reverse it, but the doctor introduced me to someone who dealt with illnesses like mine before. For a... fee, he provides me with a medication that temporarily negates the effects of the compression on my lungs when I use the shadows to travel. It also slows the progression of the illness, it doesn't stop it though."

The room was silent for a long moment. Tori didn't look up when she finished speaking. She didn't think she could. She had basically just told him that she had a limited amount of time to live. Which was part of the reason she wanted so badly to make right the wrongs she had made. The quiet was stifling so she began speaking again, feeling almost as if she needed to finish what she wanted to say.

"After... After I found out you were Red Arrow I began thinking about quitting again. I knew you'd find out eventually and I didn't think I could live with myself if you did. I was so worried about what you might think. Before I could really make a decision though Dom was killed. You saw the footage, I was there, I... I practically killed the two men who had done it. Dragged them into the shadows, no one will ever find them." She swallowed thickly shuddering at the thought. "Afterwards I realised that I had to quit, I couldn't just keep pretending like my part in the League of Shadows was unconnected to the assassins and the killing. So I quit, I returned the item I had stolen that night and decided to return all the others too. I thought maybe I could make amends it I could at least try to do that, even though I knew it would make it easier for the Shadows to find me."

Again the silence felt like it lasted an eternity and this time Tori could think of nothing more to say. She chanced a glance in Roy's direction to gauge his reaction. He had his eyes closed his forehead resting against his laced fingers and a deep frown was on his face. She could practically hear the gears in his head turning as he thought about everything she had said.

"Why didn't you just tell me?" He asked after a moment and it was so quiet Tori almost didn't hear him. It seemed like the last of his anger had evaporated. For now at least.

"Would you have listened? Or even believed me?" She asked just as quietly. "You said yourself that you weren't willing to give me the benefit of the doubt where the Justice League was. I was scared that you would overreact and possibly turn me in. You have to understand Roy; if the Shadows ever found out who I was I would be a dead woman."

He nodded as if he did understand which Tori felt a little grateful for.

"So what are we going to do about this?" She asked calmly but secretly she was dreading his answer. Just because he understood, or seemed to didn't mean anything. Jade had still tried to kill her after all even though they had been friends for years and Jade knew Tori had wanted out. Understood why too.

Roy sighed and sat back. He didn't make direct eye contact with her which made her worry. "I think we should talk to Oliver and Dinah before this gets anymore out of hand than it has."

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><p>Oh my god writing this out was agonizing. The whole time I was like. "Oh my god I hope this doesn't sound cliche!" but I think it turned out okay. Not exactly how I originally wanted it to be. I HAD wanted Roy to grab her shoulders and shake her and demand answers when he first walked in... but the Tori was sitting down and I was like WTF girl get up. but she didn't want to... sigh, characters can be so unreasonable sometimes. Oh well.<p>

So how many of you have seen YJ:Invasion? I don't want to give any spoilers but I think it's okay so far. I mean there are a few things I dislike (Liek how Roy, Kal, Arty and Wally aren't there yet) but there are a few things I really do like (like Nightwing... He so sexy!~ And now my friend Mary, who also watches the series, can stop calling me a pedophile for having a thirteen year old as my favorite character.). Point is I'm willing to give it a chance. besides I just LOVE Garfield! He so frigging cute! And Blue Beetle makes me laugh so hard. Anyway.

I've been gnawing, yes gnawing (as in biting), on the idea of doing a little side story that explores Tori's past a little. Of course this will be WAY before she ever meets Roy and is mostly focused on her childhood. I was only thinking this because I hate writing flashbacks(they almost always turn into a chapter of their own), and I don't want her to have to just explain everything. I was thinking of doing intros in a journal format and then moving on to actual chapters or something. I dunno it was just an idea but let me know okay!

On another note, who has realized that the title of this story and all of my chapters, except the first, are named after Micheal Jackson songs? Cookies to those who did and to the others just realizing it, you're about to go look that up just to be sure aren't you? But cookies to you too. Speaking of here is a link to the YJ cookies my darling friend Katrina and I made. You may have to go to page two to find the actual cookies because all of our ingredients and the cooking process in on the first. w w w. dropbox .com/gallery/20573431/1/Cookie%20Justice?h=c31109&p=0 There are spaces between dropbox and the periods on either side of it as well as in between the ws erase those to get to the site.

Thanks to Phoebus, liontaming, Johanna Ershova, CheshireCat2012, , SakuraTenshi36092, Music-Maniac-At-17, TheLoveDov, GWeasley, aireagle92, sora0995, feliciahardy, Glittering-Red-Rose and rinpup14 for your faves and story alerts! It means a lot to me that people are liking my story!

So I'm going to begin replying to my reviews in my little Author's notes here so here goes

**Chances vs Pills:** Glad you liked that. I thought you would!~ Also thanks for saying you liked how I protayed Jade. I'm sooooo happy she's not way OOC. Thanks for your input on this chapter too it really helped!

**Johanna Ershova: ** Thanks so much it means a lot! ^-^

**ImmatureChild: **I'm sorry! Don't eat me please! As a peace offering I give you this chapter!

**lolmak: **My name actually isn't Peter!~ XD It's Katelynn. Peter is just a nickname i was given in high school by my friends. Thanks for your comments I'm trying to keep the story at a high quality and update on a regular basis. I'm trying to deal with the spelling a grammatical errors but my friend who usually does my editing has been rally busy lately. therefore I blame it entirely on her!

**RunningQueenx5: **Good job for not crying! I'm proud of you too :P. And you didn't have to wait long did you! He found out! Gasp~

**aireagle92:** UPDATE!~ Now you know!

**rinpup14: **Thanks! Glad you like it!

Oh my god yet again... this A/N is so freaking long... my friends tell me I'm long winded but I never really noticed until now, I hope you guys can forgive me for that.

ANYWAY!~ I'll let you guys get back to your lives if you haven't gotten bored of reading this already. (Seriously why are you still here? I'm just rambling!) Hope you liked this chapter and remember REVIEWS ARE LOVE. I love hearing from you guys even if it's two words, even if you've reviewed before. It makes me happy.

Lots of love!

Peter~


	9. Keep the Faith

**Hi guys!~ I think I'm back to my bad habit of writing chapters and posting them abruptly afterwards like I promised myself I wouldn't. Then again it is...*looks at clock* 1:30 in the morning here and I _just_ woke up. Yeah my sleeping pattern is totally frigged up. I blame the coffee shop. Strangely enough most of this chapter and the last was written while I was at work. Go for cliche Peter. Anyway hope you guys enjoy this chapter, not really all that action packed or anything but it had to be done for the sake of the story.**

**DISCLAIMER: Sadly I do not own YJ or any of DC comics. If I did I think I would have married Batman when I was nine. Right now though I'm gunning for Nightwing or Roy. ;D  
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><p>Star City<p>

Star Labs central office

October 1st 11:29 PDT

Tori stared skyward when she stepped out of Roy's car. The Star Labs building before her was not unfamiliar to her, in fact she had robbed it on several different occasions in the past. However she had never entered this building through the main entrance, so this seemed a little surreal.

Out if the corner of her eye she saw Roy hand his keys to a valet then walk over to her. She wanted desperately to reach out and grab his hand, just to make sure she was still grounded. Her nerves were practically killing her but she didn't want to risk it.

Since Roy had found out about her secret double life he'd been distant. She saw him most every day for the past three days, but they had hardly exchanged more than a few words at a time to one another. It was tense and awkward. Tori almost felt as if he was acting more like a warden then her boyfriend. Of course they hadn't really discussed where their relationship stood after the whole fiasco either.

She knew he would need time to process everything, that he likely wouldn't trust her again for some time. But she kept praying he would stay with her. Jade had already more or less abandoned her and the some of the kids from the center were still emotionally traumatized about Dom. He was really the only person she had to hold onto right now. If he left, she wasn't sure how she'd cope with everything.

"Ready?" He asked her when he saw she had made no move to enter the building.

"Yeah." She lied and motioned him forward with her real arm. She had managed to convince him to all her to get her damaged fake arm repaired and reattached. It was fully functional but it still hurt to use sometimes. The strain of having her nerves reconnected was not pleasant and because it had only just been replaced yesterday she still felt a little ill. Phantom pains had been bothering her all day.

"Then let's go." He replied and after taking a deep breath she followed him into the doors. They were meeting Oliver in his office at the building. He was the president after all. Dinah would be there as well. The two adults had no idea why the meeting was arranged, only that it was urgent and they needed absolute privacy, which was why they would be using Oliver's office. It was probably the safest place to have a conversation and not be overheard in all of Star City.

Tori twisted her fingers and chewed on her lip the whole time they were in the elevator. She was an edgy bundle of nerves when she thought about telling Oliver and Dinah her secret. Surely they would react far better than Roy did but she still had no idea how they would decide her fate. Because ultimately it would be up to them and the Justice League about what they were going to do with her. That was why they were here in the first place, because Roy had no idea what to do about this situation.

All too soon they were standing outside an elegant pair of wooden office doors. Tori gripped her fake arm tightly, her face pale with nervousness and the phantom pains. Roy didn't even knock, he just opened the doors without warning and walked right in.

Hesitating at the doors Tori peeked her head into the office which was nicely furnished with cream coloured walls and green upholstered couches and chairs. Oliver and Dinah were sitting on a couch off to the side of the large room and they both had stood up when Roy entered. Dinah made eye contact with Tori and motioned her in with a smile.

"Tori, how have you been? We haven't seen very much of you lately." The blond woman said giving the girl a hug when she approached.

"I'm fine." She said standing stiffly under Dinah's affectionate gesture. She normally would have been happy to see her, but right now she felt as if she didn't deserve the kindness that was being shown to her.

After a moment Dinah let her go and motioned for her to sit. Roy was offered a seat too but instead opted to stand at the shoulder of the armchair that Tori had taken residence in.

"So why did you need to talk to us kids?" Oliver asked offering Tori a drink that she politely declined.

"Well... there's something important we had to discuss." Tori said nervously and Oliver's eyes met hers briefly until she looked away.

"You're not pregnant are you?" He asked abruptly.

"NO!" Tori and Roy both exclaimed at the same time that Dinah hit him and said "Oliver!"

"Sorry, sorry, just making sure. Are you eloping?"

Dinah hit him again.

"It's nothing like that." Roy growled and by his tone Tori knew his face was probably as red as hers was.

"It's umm... actually about the thief you're trying to track down." Tori said suddenly feeling very small. Here goes nothing right?

"Roy told you about that?" Oliver asked suddenly serious and sending Roy a stern look over her shoulder.

"In a manner of speaking." She replied evasively.

Dinah seemed to be catching onto her nerves and leaned forward with her elbows on her knees. "What do you know about Spade, Tori? Are you in trouble?" She asked with a kind of motherly concern on her face that had Tori feeling even worse by the second.

"I know..." She paused and looked up at Roy. He was watching her intently and when they made eye contact his expression softened ever so slightly and her nodded. "Everything. I know everything." She finished.

"What do you mean Tori?" Oliver seemed confused. Tori bowed her head and stared at her hands.

"I'm so sorry." She whispered. She couldn't do this, there was no way. Not after they had done so much for her. Accepted her just because of her connection with Roy and treated her like family.

"Tori, what are you sorry for?" Dinah asked in concern and Tori couldn't hold it in any more.

"I am... That is I was, until recently, the thief called Spade and was working for the Shadows." She said refusing to look at them. She didn't see their eyes widen in shock or see them exchange a serious look.

"And you are one hundred percent sure of this?" Dinah asked and Tori knew the question was directed to Roy.

"I discovered a few days ago. On the mission the team assisted with." He replied.

Tori could feel their eyes back on her and she closed her own, waiting for them to sentence her to Belle Rev or slap a pair of cuffs on her wrist. If they did she wouldn't resist, She had as good as betrayed them by keeping this secret.

"Why don't you explain how it came to this." Oliver offered, his voice serious yet calming to her nerves at the same time.

A little flare of hope came to life in her chest when she heard those words and it strengthened when she felt Roy's hand on her shoulder. He had been acting distant, but maybe he wasn't as far away from her as she had feared.

"It's a bit of a long story." She began. And so she explained everything to them that she had told to Roy just days ago. Of course she also went into detail about how Roy had found out during the fight with Cheshire and her assassins and she expressed her desire to continue returning the stolen artifacts in her usual manner. The two adults were quiet through the whole thing, only pausing her when they had to ask a question to clarify something. Eventually she finished speaking and sank back into the chair, drained from having to reveal all of her secrets but also strangely relieved. It felt good not to have to hide everything.

"You know, I think I would have rathered that you were pregnant. It would be a lot less complicated that way."Oliver joked good naturedly and Tori's face returned to its red color from before.

"I'm sorry for all the trouble I've caused. If I could go back in time and stop it all from ever happening I would." She apologized for what seemed like the hundredth time.

"We know." Dinah said gently. "And it's a big step Tori, admitting that you were wrong and trying to turn yourself around."

"So what's going to happen now?" Roy asked.

"as much as I hate to say it we will probably have to take this matter to the Justice League and Batman. And you know how long they can take to come to a consensus about anything." Oliver sighed.

"For the time being we'll have to put a watch on you Tori. It's for your safety and ours you understand." Dinah watched her carefully.

"I understand." She nodded "Until you can decide what to officially do with me, I'm a liability to all of you."

"That's not exactly how I would put it..." The blond woman began.

"But it's true. You can't even send me to jail right now knowing what I do. The shadows will find out who I am, they'll capture me, torture me for information and then kill me. We're all in danger." And it was all her fault.

"Who are you going to get to watch her? You can't just take her out of Star City. It'll be suspicious if she just disappears now. And if there is a new League member hanging around her everyday someone is bound to notice. Roy pointed out. Especially with the paparazzi still keeping an eye out for her.

"And the three of us can't be around _all_ the time." Oliver agreed.

"It wouldn't be suspicious if kids were with her though, she does work at a community center." Dinah pointed out.

"What?" Roy asked immediately catching on to what she meant. "No way. Those guys can hardly keep their identities secret as it is. If she knows then we're in even more danger."

"Relax Roy. No one said anything about revealing their identities and I'm sure they would be careful if they knew the situation." Oliver said diplomatically.

Roy grumbled something under his breath but said no more.

"How exactly are you going to get this 'team' here? Wouldn't it be strange if a bunch of teenagers just spontaneously showed up at once?" Tori asked.

"Don't worry about it Tori. We'll handle the arrangements" Dinah smiled at her kindly. Tori nodded and was about to ask something else when the office building shook violently. Tori nearly fell out of her chair and Roy actually toppled over. Soon the shaking stopped though.

"What the hell was that?" She exclaimed. It wasn't very often that Star City was victim to earthquakes and it was entirely out of season for them anyway. She looked over at a flat screen on the wall that had been previously displaying the news. Maybe there would be an explanation there. Instead all she saw was static that only lasted of a moment. All too suddenly the Joker's face appeared on the screen, his psychotic chuckle making her shudder.

"Oh no." She muttered drawing the other's attention to the television screen.

If the content of the broadcast that was playing was not enough to concern her the fact that she recognized most villains in it would have. Ivy, Joker, Vertigo and Wotan, then the three others she did not recognize.

"So I'm guessing that plant thing is the cause of our earthquake?" She asked after a minute.

"Probably." Oliver nodded and put an finger to his ear.

"Go for Green Arrow. Yes we saw... They're bother here with me now... We're on our way, Oh and there is something Dinah and I have to discuss with the League later."

"Batman?" Roy asked and Oliver nodded

"There are multiple plant creatures that have sprouted up in various cities all over the world we have to handle the one here."

Oliver walked over to his desk and pressed a few buttons on his keyboard that revealed a panel on the wall that held all of his gear as well as Canary's and surprisingly Red Arrow's. No one seemed to question it. Tori turned away as they all changed.

"Alright, everyone suit up. Tori you'll have to stay here." Dinah said when she had changed into her Canary outfit.

"What! But I want to help." She said when she realized that no, she was not coming along. Like they would have let her anyway. Green and Red Arrow were already at the window with a zip line that went across several buildings.

"Tori, you're in your civvies and besides, you don't have any fighting experience." Dinah told her softly.

"But I can use-"

"You'll kill yourself if you do. Just stay here." Red Arrow told her abruptly before her jumped out of the window that Green Arrow had just left from.

Tori sighed and stared at the floor angrily.

He's just worried." Dinah told her, seeming to notice the tension between the two.

"He's angry with me." She replied sullenly as she sat back in the chair she had vacated. "Please make sure he doesn't do anything too stupid and end up hurt."

"I'll do my best. And maybe sometime after all this I can teach you some fighting techniques so you can beat some sense into him." Dinah said and Tori smiled somewhat.

"Right. You be careful too Dinah."

"Thanks Tori, I will." And then Dinah left as well. Tori sighed again and stared up at the news channel that was broadcasting again. The feed from the Joker's camera was gone which was a bit of a relief. That guy shad always creeped her out. Man, it was going to be an even longer Day than she had expected and there was nothing she could do to help. She could hardly fight at all and her meta abilities were mist useful during the night, not in bright sunlight. Not to mention that it was slowly killing her from the inside out. Her arm throbbed with a pain that wasn't really there. Yeah this really long day just got a whole lot longer.

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><p>So like I said I wrote this just a little bit ago. It's really not all that interesting I find but there are a couple parts where I had to stop writing because I was laughing so hard... Oh Ollie you crack me up. But really though, can't you see him saying something like that! XD. Anyway. Roy is still mad, don't worry he'll come around but not for another few chapters. Also in the next chapter we get to meet the the YJ team! YAY!~ I actually already have the chapter written up in my book. Now just to get it typed!<p>

So I know Ollie's and Dinah's responses are a bit... less than what Roy's was. But I mean come on, they were trying to find Spade and give her a chance at being a good guy before hand. And they already have a casual relationship with Tori because of her involvement with Roy. Dinah more so but girl's bond over things better than boys do. Anyway the point is that though they were shocked they were still willing to take their original stance on the matter though it is a bit different since she knows who they are. Okay cleared up? Good.

Thanks to Badluckgirl11 and Faizah Nawfal for adding Smooth Criminal to your Faves and Alerts!

Alright to the reviews!~

**aireagle92: **Thanks so much I tried really hard on this one!

**Azulish:** Don't worry it's okay! I did really miss you though, I thought you left me! T-T AND I AM NOT! I refuse to believe it! No cookies for you for that comment... Jk you can have cookies. But not my YJ cookies.

**BookwormStrawberry:** Thanks the support means a lot!

**ImmatureChild:** Whew *wipes forehead* That's a relief. I was worried there for a minute. And don't worry about her arm... She got it back right?

**Chances vs Pills: **OMG! You said OMG! XD Thanks for the totally whelming reaction! It made me laugh and come to the conclusion that the chapter was probably better than I originally thought. Thanks for that. And thanks for your support on the idea for a side story!~

**Abbie Brown:** Oh noes! Not Harley Quinn! Wait... I could just make her some Joker cookies. Think she would go for that? XD

**RunningQueen****x5:** Thanks for your exuberance it made me happy to see that message in my inbox. And the long author's notes will probably continue. It's something I both dread and look forward to.

Yay!~ So remember guys to review! See what it does? It makes me update faster and inspires me to write more for you! *Wink wink*

Also only one person responded to my idea for a little side story on Tori's past. I would still like more input but I think I'll go ahead with it anyway for the time being. I'll let you all know when I get it up okay!

Stay awesome possum guys. AWESOME POSSUM you hear me!

Peter~


	10. Black and White

**I am so sorry it took me two weeks to get this out! I've been really busy with work and life in general seems to hate me. But we're finally in the double digits! YAY!~ **

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Young Justice sadly. If I did Roy wouldn't be a... a, I don't even want to think about it. INVASION I WILL KILL YOU FOR THIS!  
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><p>Star City<p>

October 4th 15:24 PDT

"Are you really sure that this is okay?" Tori heard Roy's voice off to her right and slightly ahead of her.

"It's fine. She can't see anything can you Tori?" Replied Oliver who was walking just behind her left shoulder. She had the distinct feeling he had just waved his hand in front of her face. Not that she could see it anyway with the thick black blindfold that covered her eyes.

"I am very much in the dark." She replied a bit dryly and she heard Dinah chuckle. Tori turned her head to the sound and felt her foot catch on something. She stumbled and felt someone catch her before she face planted into the ground, she gave a muttered curse but kept walking. "Do I really need to wear this?"

"Sorry Tori but it is a secret location." The older woman told her.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. The whole you'd have to kill me if you told me deal, trust me I've become accustomed to that." She waved her hand flippantly in the direction she thought Dinah was in as if she was brushing the thought away.

"That or erase your memory."Oliver joked.

"You can do that?" Tori asked suddenly wary of going anywhere. Why were they taking her to a mysterious secret location again? Oh right to meet her babysitters... wait bodyguards.

"Pretty sure Martian Manhunter can. But we don't do that unless it's an extreme emergency." Replied Oliver in a joking tone but Tori wasn't entirely convinced that it was only a joke. From what she knew Martian Manhunter did have telepathic abilities.

"Okay we're her. Dinah and I will go fist. We'll authorize Tori. So follow after her Roy."

There was no vocal response from Roy so Tori figured he must have just nodded. She heard a slight squeak of something metal that was in some serious need of oil and then a flash of light that Tori could see even through her blindfold.

"Authorized, Black Canary. Authorized, Green Arrow." A woman's automated voice announced.

"Here." Roy said when the light faded and he took her arm to guide her into some sort of metal box like contraption. Tori immediately tensed when she felt around and discovered that the box she was in was no more than 3 feet wide in any direction.

"Oh because doing this blindfolded isn't terrifying enough. There just has to be tiny metal boxes involved too." She grumbled under her breath. She had an acute fear of small enclosed spaces, they really freaked her out. She could have sworn she heard Roy chuckle at her obvious discomfort but the automated voice spoke over him.

"Authorized Victoria Chase." There was another flash of light and Tori was momentarily disoriented. She nearly fell again but caught herself on the wall of something large and round.

"Whoa, not sure that is a much fun as you told me it was Oliver." She said when she heard him laugh. "Can I take this stupid blindfold off now?"

"Go ahead." Dinah replied just as the computer announced Roy's arrival to... where ever it was they had ended up.

Tori reached up and picked at the knot on the blindfold until it came off. At first the light in the room blinded her, but when her eyes adjusted she saw that she was inside a large cave that was filled with every type of high tech machinery she could think of. Even the floor on which she stood seemed to have some sort of high tech function from the look of it. Her eyes detected sensors everywhere on it though it couldn't have been used as a security measure.

She looked around in awe at the size of the place. "It's huge!" She exclaimed much like a child might.

"Black Canary calling Team. To the briefing room please." Dinah said going into what Tori referred to as 'Black Canary Mode' as if the older woman could turn it on and off at will.

The four waited for the team to appear, Tori fidgeting the entire time. She shouldn't be nervous, the team had no idea that she was Spade and nor would they know. It had been agreed that she was going to be introduced as a civilian who had been targeted by the Shadows and needed protection. Still her nerves were starting to get to her.

Finally after what seemed to be an eternity they heard the chatter of voices as five teens emerged from a large hallway on the other side of the cave. One was missing, Tori noted. She remembered there being six when she had encountered them on the roof top, not including Roy of course.

"Hey Red!" The boy with flaming ginger hair called running over faster than should have been humanly possible. Even though he was in civvies she could tell that this MUST have been Kid Flash. There was no other explanation.

"Who's the new girl?" The tall and imposing dark haired boy asked.

"Yeah beautiful what's your name?" Kid Flash asked wiggling his eyebrows. This caused Tori to give a nervous laugh and take a few steps back towards Roy who placed a hand on her shoulder as if to comfort her.

"She's too old for you KF." Roy said in a deadpanned voice that just dared the other boy to say otherwise. "Besides she's taken."

"Aw man!"

The other teens laughed at the boy and Tori smiled a bit her face growing warm from all the attention and blatant flirting. She also felt relieved though, Roy had still been distant with her after everything and she had feared he would deny involvement with her, but what he said made her feel as if all hope was not lost.

"Where's Artemis?" Black Canary suddenly asked and Tori's head whipped to the blond woman so fast she nearly gave herself whiplash. Artemis? As in Jade's younger sister Artemis? Well thanks for sharing that tidbit of information Jade it's not like _that_ could have helped her at all. Suddenly Tori was even more nervous than she was before.

"She's in the showers. She said she'd be out in a minute." The green skinned girl that Tori took to be Miss Martian answered.

"Alright we can introduce her later. Team this is Victoria Chase." Canary said motioning to her.

"I prefer to be called Tori." She said with a small wave.

"So are you going to be a part of the team?" The smallest of the group asked. This one had to be Robin.

"No, she is not." Dinah said sternly. "We have a mission for the team concerning Tori."

"She's been targeted by the League of Shadows." Roy told them.

"Why? She doesn't look like anything special." Superboy asked then seemed to think about what he had said for a moment and added, "No offense."

"None taken." She replied holding up her hands.

" So again... why?" Aqualad asked making a motion with his hands as if expecting someone to explain.

"The Shadows discovered that she has some involvement with the League." Green Arrow supplied vaguely.

"What did they see red Arrow sneaking out of your apartment or something?" Robin said with a smirk on his face. Tori felt her face flush again and couldn't help but raise an eyebrow toward the boy. How old was this kid again?

"Well not exactly..." She said with a short laugh. "I actually-"

"What is _she _doing here!" A yell suddenly cut Tori off and everyone's head turned ro the blond haired archer that had entered the room.

"Artemis calm down and we'll explain everything." Green Arrow tried to calm her, having known from the beginning that Artemis likely would know who Tori was. Though he had hoped she would not over react.

"Whoa Arty you know her?" Kid flash asked.

"She's a member of the League of Shadows!" Artemis exclaimed abruptly pullign out a collapsible bow from its holster on her leg. She pointed it threateningly at Tori, Roy immediately got in the way, his body partially blocking her's from the other archer's sight.

When the other kids turned to Tori she had already schooled her face to neutrality, she could tell by the expressions on their faces that they were tense and on edge. Except for Robin oddly enough who seemed to be at ease as if he had know this all along.

"I quit that job." She stated the line as if it had been rehearsed and put a hand on Roy's arm so he would step back beside her. She didn't need him in the way of a potential fight.

"It's true, Tori is done with the Shadows." Black Canary said calmly.

"Put the weapon away." Roy added with a growl.

Most of the team seemed to relax but Artemis still held the bow level with Tori's chest .

"Artemis." Tori began hoping that maybe she could talk to her and get her to see reason but once again Artemis cut her off.

"Shut up! So how did you convince the League you were good? Probably thought that returning all of those artefacts would make them think you'd really given it all up, didn't you?" Artemis snapped and Tori knew by the choice of her words that the younger girl was well aware of her other identity.

"When did you figure it out?" She asked slowly.

"When you vanished on the rooftop. You didn't think I'd forget something like that did you?"

"Wait a second..." Kid Flash interrupted as he clued into what they were talking about. "Are you-"

"The former thief known as Spade" Tori sighed and ran a hand through her hair.

"And you know Artemis?" Miss Martian asked.

"Yeah we..." Tori paused when she saw Artemis's eyes widen as if in fear. Then didn't know about her family then, Tori decided, and why wouldn't they be in the dark about the archer's heritage. It was almost as bad as if she was in the Shadows herself. "We go back. Our families were close... Real close."

Artemis relaxed a little but her glare didn't.

"So let me get this straight. You're Spade and the League of Shadows is after you... You know Artemis and you're dating Red Arrow?" Kid Flashed asked ticking off the points on his fingers. "How exactly does all that work out?"

"It's a bit complicated." Tori replied pursing her lips.

"It's not complicated! She's just been lying to everyone and using them!" Artemis growled.

"That's enough, all of you." A deep Male voice announced and all attention turned to Batman who seemed to have mysteriously come from nowhere, his intimidating presence alone made all of the teens go stiff. He glanced pointedly at Artemis's weapon and with a huff she put it away. He turned to Tori, his veiled eyes scanning her as if he was analyzing the best way to take her down in a fight. She almost shrank away and hid behind Roy, but managed to stand her ground and not look like a complete coward.

"This mission is not to be taken lightly. It is very true that the Shadows are looking for the rouge Spade and several assassins will be sent out to discover who she is. One already knows and as of yet we do not know why this information is being withheld from the Shadows." Batman said his voice the epitome of authority. "You are each going to take turns tailing and keeping an eye on Victoria. She knows the identities of three heroes already. Be aware that your mission is not only to keep her alive and away from the Shadows but also to gauge whether or not she has been truthful about cutting all of her ties to the Shadows. We'll do a more in depth briefing on the mission later and make up a schedule. Black Canary, Green Arrow and Red Arrow will all be helping us as well."

It was almost as if Tori wasn't there, the way Batman spoke of her. It was almost unnerving how he got straight to the point and practically demanded absolute obedience without even saying as much. It was both scary and a little inspiring at the same time.

"On another note, the League has decided to grant you permission to continue returning the stolen artefacts." Now he turned to Tori and her expression brightened a bit. ""But only on the condition that you only go out with Black Canary and you allow her to teach you some basic combat skill to protect yourself should you be attacked again."

"Don't you think you're being a little soft on someone who was working with the Shadows?" Artemis growled.

Batman sent her a glare. "This was the decision of the League. Connections to the Shadows do not dictate a person's character. Keep an open mind, you don't know the whole story." He said sterly and Artemis almost looked as if she had been slapped across the face. Tori felt a little bad for her but knew that her sympathy would be unwanted so she decided not to say anything.

"For now you are all dismissed. Green Arrow, Black Canary, I trust you can handle the girl for a few more days. Just until we're ready." The Dark Knight said turning his attention to the other two League members.

"Don't worry. Despite her history Tori.. Er, Victoria doesn't really cause too much trouble... anymore anyway." Green Arrow said with a grin.

"Good." With a swish of his cape he turned and left the room, the team following suit shortly after with glances over their shoulders at the group that was left standing there.

~O~

Later on that night Tori found herself sitting upside down on her bed with her head hanging off the edge as Black Canary paced back and forth across her room.

"How do you live in such a place Tori?" She teased looking around the dreary apartment with a bit of distaste. Tori just shrugged, though the motion was hindered by the fact that she was upside down.

"Umm... No offense Dinah, I love you like a big sister and all but why exactly did you spontaneously show up in my apartment? You said Batman had put up surveillance around the building and surrounding areas until the team could come to babysit me." Tori asked. The blond woman stopped pacing and shot Tori a disapproving look.

"You heard what Batman said didn't you? I'll be training you from now on." She replied with her hands on her hips.

"Yeah in combat." Tori pointed out. "And earlier you said we wouldn't start that until next week."

"True but the best way to get experience is out in the field. Besides I know you wanted to go out tonight anyway, it's been a while since you gave back an artefact. You're as anxious to get them all returned as the media is."

"Am I really so transparent?" Tori asked with a deadpanned expression.

"A little." Black Canary smiled ruefully.

"Good to know." The dark haired girl grumbled and sat up, twisting around so she was facing her new 'mentor'. "What did you have in mind? Last time i went out as Spade it didn't turn out so well."

"That's why you're not going out as Spade." Canary smiled and picked up a duffle bag that she had brought along with her. "I brought you a new outfit. Go get changed and we'll head out."

As much as Tori wanted to refuse she knew she couldn't, so with a sigh she took the bag and locked herself into her washroom to change. It took her a minute to figure it all out but eventually she managed to get everything on.

It was a little different from her Spade outfit which had only consisted of black and white. This costume was a mix of navy, black and a few dark grays. The shirt was navy and covered her entire torso from her neck to her hips and had gray on the sides, and had no sleeves. The gloves were fingerless like the old ones but the one on her left hand was shorter than the right, giving her easy access to the hidden compartment in her prosthetic. Her nearly skin tight pants were black and she had a lighter colored belt that had various pouches so she could carry things without the need for pockets. Her boots were the same color as her belt but with navy accents here and there. To finish off the ensemble there was a visor to cover her eyes with. After a little fiddling around she discovered that it had all the same capabilities her custom contacts had like zoom and infrared function. All in all, Canary had done a preety good job.

"it looks nice." Canary complimented when she walked out of the bathroom in her new outfit. "And it's made of tougher material then your old suit so it'll be more durable."

Tori gave a slight nod, she was pretty sure Roy had mentioned something about superhero garb being made of a tough yet flexible material called... Kelvar. That sounded right.

"You're going to need a new name too." Canary said after a minute. "Have any ideas?"

"Nix" Tori said without pause.

Canary raised an eyebrow. "Any particular reasons?" She asked in curiosity. The name was ironic, for it was a name that was shared by the Greek goddess of the night and darkness.

"It just seems fitting." Tori replied as she threw the empty duffle bag on her bed. The truth was that it was a name she had been called long ago, long before she had faced any of the ordeals that lead her on the path she was on now. It was the nickname her mother had given her when she was small and had first displayed signs of her meta ability. From what she remembered, which was very little, her mother always did have a knack for stating the obvious, even in nicknames. She had dared not use the name when she chose her identity as Spade, she did not want to disgrace her mother's memory like that. But now that she had chosen a better path she wanted to give the name meaning again.

"Alright then let's go. What are we returning tonight?" Canary asked going over to the window and hoisting it open so they could slip out.

"The Eye of Morgana." Tori replied, already having put the small eye star sapphire into one of the pouches in her belt along with her customary note. "It was said to have all the sealed powers of Morgana Le Fay. The security at the Stanfeild Museum of English Lore is not lax, so it may take some time to get in without getting caught. They will probably be happy to see it back."

"I'm sure they will."Canary smiled as she jumped through the window with the newly named Nix on her heels.

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><p>I totally suck at clothes descriptions.. I find them tedious and a little annoying but I wanted to get her new outfit up there even though I never really described her old one. XD.<p>

So has anyone else seen the new Invasion episode? I think I nearly died when I saw Roy... he looks like a hoebag! I think I cried a little. However I'm not really bothered by the whole Roy and Cheshire situation. It happened in the comic books so I figured it was bound to happen anyway at some point. That part will not be in my story and neither will Invasion I think... well maybe the Invasion part will be, however... I have... other plans. MWAHAHAA if you want to see what you'll have to keep reading.

Thanks so much to Willow of the Bleeding Spectre, momopanda95, Mixed Reality, Super Sonic Death Turtle (LOVE the name btw.), EmpressBlack, bRoKEnhEaRTscROsSovEr, Lady Ishtar12123, VeeandreaHart, Mangagirl97, Oiten, and PennyVane for your faves and/or alerts. It means a lot to me guys!

Onto the reviews!~

**ImmatureChild**: BE HAPPY! I updated! And yeah I may throw something about her arm in there and Dinah and Ollie's reactions to it later on. Just like if she's discussing it with someone or something but I dunno yet. Thanks for the review!

**BookwormStrawberry**: Thanks for the reveiw and what you hoped for is here! The next few chapters will actually be team centric as Tori gets to know them.

**lolmak**: Thanks so much I definitely will!

**VeeandreaHart: **I'm not sure whether to laugh or be completely terrified by but don't worry, Frederick, the cricket who lives in my head assures me that it should be okay so I'll take his word for it!To solve the problem about the cookies though I'll give you two so you don't have to share. Thanks for reviewing!

**RunningQueenx5:** You are special! And of course I replied! I make a point to reply cause I know I get very happy when people reply to me... As for the CAPS LOCK... I love that button too... except when it sneaks up on me when I'm writing! Thanks for reviewing!

**Chances vs Pills**: Oliver cracks me up too. I loved writing that part. I was nearly in tears when the idea hit me!Thanks so much!

**bRoKEnhEaRTscROsSovEr:** Just saying that was a b**ch to type out! XD but that's okay! I love love loved your review! I hope you're amazed by this chapter too... I didn't think it was so amazing by hey whateves. Thanks for reviewing!

**aireagle92: **Thanks for the review! And your update is here!

Again thanks all you guys for the reviews and sorry this chapter came out so late. I've been dealing with a lot of drama at home from my mom so I've been staying at my Pa's for the past week getting fed my favorite meals by my amazing stepmum. I think I'm starting to get fat. I've also been dealing with a potential harassment issue at work that has me seriously considering quitting even though I desperately need the work. But yeah I won't regale you with that particular story.

Thanks for the support guys! I love you so much that I creep all your profiles... is it weird to say that every time I get a message for a new review or alert that I go and stalk people's profiles and stories? Maybe it is... *nervous laugh* man I'm such a creeper.

Lots of Love!

~Peter the Creeper... ha that rhymes!


	11. Monkey Business

**This one is a little late so I apologize for that I've been busy and this chapter gave me some trouble in regards to what I wanted to happen. Anyway! Chapter 11 guys! I hope you like it! I know it's probably not as interesting as the others but I tried. **

**Also this one is dedicated to my good friend and follower of Smooth Criminal, Mary Ellen. She's been helping me talk this out so I can figure out what's going on and what I want to happen. Big thanks to Mary for letting me talk her ear off even though we both know we should have been working when we were talking. She shows up in a small cameo here.**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Young Justice, The Justice League or Mary. The last one may be rectified when I develop the software for brainwashing. XD Just kidding Mary... just kidding. Maybe.  
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><p>Star City Zoo<p>

October 8 8:43 PDT

Tori stretched when she stepped off of the bus that had been parked in front of the Star City zoo gate and looked around herself. Today was supposed to be the first day that a watch would be put on her. It was for her own safety but that wasn't the only reason of course it was also for the safety of the Justice League. She did after all know the secret identities of two of the Leagues member along with one other hero. She was a liability that needed to be watched, because she had once had connections with the Shadows.

With a snort she rolled her eyes when she spotted a figure in the crowd that she recognized as Superboy, standing only meters away from her. Dinah had told her Miss Martian had been given the first shift keeping tabs on her, which meant that the Martian was probably camouflaged with the surroundings somewhere. She had absolutely no idea why Superboy was here though. Maybe he lived in the area and liked the zoo? That idea was quickly blown out of the water when he looked directly at her then scowled when he saw she was watching him. She just shrugged and smiled at him before she turned and walked into the zoo.

This was a place Tori frequented. She enjoyed watching the animal but today was more important than just leisure, she was planning on surprising one of the children from the center for her birthday. She was a red haired, freckled child named Mary who was possibly one of the most adorable children she had ever met. She would be turning nine today and her older brother was bringing her here so Tori could spend the day with her.

Of course she was a bit early so she began wandering the park until she found the picnic area where they were supposed to meet and she sat down on a bench to wait. They would show up eventually. Besides sitting in one place also made it easier for her tail to follow her.

From the corner of her eye she observed that Superboy was still within sight, trying to blend in with the crowd but failing epically. Nothing stood out more in some places than a teenage boy alone in the zoo scowling at everyone and everything. It was just plain out of place. Who scowled at a zoo anyway?

Tori gave a small sigh. Did this kid not know anything about espionage or at least how to move around without being noticed by everyone that passed him? Did he even know he stood out so much? Why couldn't he even hide in the bushes, at least then he might receive fewer strange looks from passersby.

"Tori!" A child's squeal interrupted Tori's observation of her stalker and turned so she could smile brightly at the wild tangle of red curls that had suddenly invaded her vision. "Tori what are you doing here."

"I came to wish you a happy birthday." She said with a laugh and glanced up to the young girl's older brother. "Thanks Nick, I'll drop her off at the center when we're done."

Nick also worked at the center so they'd made arrangements to take the child there after the day was done. Nick nodded, then with a wave and a short warning to his sister to behave, he had left.

"So Mary. What do you want to do first?" Tori asked the little red head who was practically bouncing on the spot with excitement.

"Tigers!" She said with a laugh.

"Tigers huh? Well let's see... Tigers are that way along with the lions and bears... oh my!" She laughed, cracking herself up. She really had to stop watching all those old movies.

As the day progressed Tori allowed Mary to drag her from one end of the park to the other. The zoo really was huge so by the time Tori managed to convince the child to sit down for lunch they hadn't even seen a quarter of the park.

They were sitting outside the lunch pavilion in the center of the park when she saw Superboy leaning against a fence nearby. He was looking directly at her, not even bothering to pretend otherwise when he noticed that she'd seen him. However he did scowl again. Tori rolled her eyes and turned back to Mary who wasn't in her seat.

Tori jumped up when she noticed the child was missing and looked around wildly. "Mary!" She called when she spotted the tiny head of curls standing directly in front of the boy who had been following them all day.

"Why have you been watching Tori?" She asked, startling the Superboy who hadn't even noticed her there. "Do you like her or something because she has a boy friend you know."

Tori nearly died laughing when she saw the look of shock on Superboy's face. It was very clear how uncomfortable he was with such a question. He probably heard her try to cover her laugh but her didn't even bother looking at her as his brain worked to try and figure out what to say to the nine year old who looked more adorable than intimidating with her hands on her hips and a glare on her face.

"No... I um..." He said scratching the back of his neck awkwardly.

"You've been following us all day!" Mary insisted trying to look even more menacing but it just didn't work.

"Um sorry is there a problem here?" A female security officer asked walking over having apparently heard some of the conversation. Tori figured that it was probably about time for her to step in and save Superboy from being kicked out of the park, or worse arrested for stalking.

"I'm sorry. There's not a problem. This is a guy I knew from school. He's kind of shy, I think he got a little lost in the park and when he saw me figured that if he followed me he'd find his way." She said as she walked over giving Superboy a friendly nod as if she'd known him for years, though she hadn't been to school in over a year.

The security officer looked between Tori who was acting calm and at ease and Superboy who was avoiding eye contact and glaring at his feet. The woman looked suspicious still but since they said there was nothing going she couldn't really do anything.

"Alright. If you say so." She said unsurely and went back to whatever it was she had been doing before she had come over.

"Uh... thanks?" Superboy said. Or more like growled.

"Not a problem." Tori shrugged "Hey Mary why don't you go play on the playground while I talk with my friend for a minute?" She said leaning down to the girl's level and pointing off to the playground nearby. Hesitantly, like she knew something wasn't quite right the child nodded and dashed off to go play.

"You know, if a kid can notice you following us there's likely a few people around the park who have as well. You could get in trouble if you're not careful." She said turning to Superboy when she had straightened up. He was scowling again.

"If it wasn't for you I wouldn't be here in the first place." He snapped and she calmly raised an eyebrow.

"That may be true but as I recall it was Miss Martian watching me today and not you. So why are you here?" She asked and was surprised to see him look away and scuff his foot on the ground as if he was ... embarrassed?

"Like I'd let her go off on her own when the Shadows could be lurking around." He grumbled under his breath and Tori was fairly certain she wasn't supposed to hear that. However she did and though it kind of irritated her she couldn't help but grin. So he and Miss Martian were a couple. That was so cute.

"Listen." She said sternly. "I can tell you like this about as much as I do. I'd really rather not have someone tailing me all day but you're drawing attention. Call Miss Martian from where ever she is. Have her pretend to be human. Have her meet us here in five minutes, we'll pretend like we were meeting here as friends. That way security won't try to get involved."

She knew it wasn't the best plan. But considering how strange it would look if he still tailed her after she had told security they were friends it was the only option she could think of. By the look on his face she could tell Superboy didn't like the idea either but he didn't say anything. Eventually though he did speak.

"She'll be here soon." He grumbled and Tori wondered how on earth he knew that of how a message had been transmitted without him using a cell phone or vocal means to do so. Then it clicked. Martians had telepathic abilities. Duh.

A few minutes later Tori was sitting back on a bench, watching Mary on the jungle gym when she saw another teenager approach. The girl probably could have passed for Mary's sister, with her red hair and freckles but Tori knew that this was Miss Martian she recognized her by her features except she didn't have green skin this time around.

"Hey Connor." She said to Superboy when she got level with them.

"Megan." He nodded his eyes moving to Tori suspiciously as if he expected her to jump up and announce that she knew the names of two more superheroes.

"You realise that just because I know your first names, doesn't mean that I know your identity right?" She asked with a small grin on her face. Connor looked surprised then scowled at her. She saw Megan turn to him and stare at him for a long moment. Tori got the distinct feeling that they were having a psychic conversation.

"Tori! Can we go see more animals now?" Mary ran over and Tori thanked whatever gods existed for having the child come over. She was starting to feel very awkward and antsy sitting here with two people who were suspicious and wary of her.

"Sure. My friends are going to come with us though okay? It'll be like a party."

"Okay. I'm Mary." The child seemed to have gotten over her earlier suspicion of Connor and stuck out her hand for them to shake.

"I'm Megan... this is Connor. It's nice to meet you Mary." Megan said with a warm smile on her face as she took the child's hand.

A few minutes later found the group walking along the path with Mary situated on Connor's shoulders after practically begging the boy for a piggyback ride. It had been very amusing for both Tori and Megan to see him try to be civil with the kid when it seemed as though his default expression was a scowl.

"I have to admit, that's pretty cute." Tori said as she walked behind the pair a ways with Megan by her side. "I wouldn't have guessed she'd take to him well after she talked to him."

"He's a nice guy once you get to know him." Megan replied with a small smile as she stared at his back.

"Not to pry or anything, you don't have to answer if you think you shouldn't but how long have you two been dating?" Tori asked after a moment. The deer in headlights look Megan gave her caused her to stifle a laugh by pretending to cough. "I take it no one was really supposed to know about that then."

"How did you know?" Megan asked her eyes narrowing ever so slightly.

"It's obvious. The way you look at each other. How he is obviously very uncomfortable having you here alone with me. Trust me I work with kids I notice these things." Tori said with a sideways grin. Megan seemed to relax a little bit.

"Not very long." She replied vaguely. "What about you and Red Arrow? I admit I was a bit surprised to find out that he was dating a villain... well ex-villain. He always seemed to be the type to be untrustworthy of those kind of people. He didn't even trust me when we first met. I don't think he even does now."

"He didn't know at first. And I didn't know he was Red Arrow. And he wasn't really happy when he found out who I was, we talked it out though." Tori said. She really didn't want to get into the gory details about her fight with Roy and how he still didn't really trust her.

"Talked?" Megan asked raising an eyebrow. And Tori laughed.

"Well not so much. Point is... it's more or less resolved for the moment. Hey Mary! Stop squirming you'll fall!" She called up to the child who had been trying to adjust her position on Connor's shoulders. The child turned her head to Tori and pouted.

"He said we're not going to see the monkeys!" She complained loudly. Tori could have sworn she heard something like 'I hate monkeys' come from Superboy and she cracked a smile.

"We can go see the monkeys Mary. Don't worry." She said and tried not to smirk when Superboy sent her a venomous look. "You don't have to come Connor, but Megan will have to because someone has to be watching me at all times."

He glared even harder at her and she heard Megan giggle beside her. Yeah he probably didn't like her playing that card since he wasn't going to leave Megan's side. He grumbled something under his breath that Tori knew probably wasn't very nice. They were halfway to the monkey exhibit when several security officers rushed by them shouting.

"Kids go the other way! Some of the Gorillas are loose!" One man stopped to warn them.

Tori was going to turn the other way, let security handle the problem when Mary, who had been holding onto her hand after getting off of Connor's shoulders dashed off after the men.

"Mary!" Tori shouted taking off after her. She could hear Megan and Connor close behind as she skidded around a corner where she nearly knocked into several security officers who tried to direct her back the way she came.

"No you don't understand. She just ran this way." She snapped at the officers who just weren't listening to her.

"I'm sorry ma'am but we can't let you past this point-" the loud roar of an animal cut him off and suddenly he was pushed out of the way by a gorilla twice the size of Tori and was knocked out when his head connected with the ground rather violently.

"This is why I hate monkeys." Superboy growled as he stepped forward. The animal roared at him and charged. Tori seriously though he was going to be trampled but was surprised when he managed to hold his ground when the beast impacted with him. His feet slid back a couple of inches but other than that he hardly moved.

"Connor be careful!" Megan called as she her eyes began to glow green. Tori didn't get to find out what the Martian was going to do because a moment later red curls ran in front of her and Tori was relieved to see Mary was in once piece.

"Stop it!" She yelled and Tori had the feeling she wasn't only talking to Megan or Superboy. "He's just scared stop it!"

Miraculously, the enormous gorilla that was about to give Superboy a wallop for the ages stepped back and grunted in what could have been frustration. He eyed Superboy with distaste that was shared on the boy's face before he turned toward the little girl.

"You've been bad!" The child announced to the creature who towered over her. "You shouldn't cause trouble, go back to the other gorillas!"

Tori gaped as the gorilla did as he was told and turned back to the gorilla compound where it seemed as if things had calmed down significantly. She wasn't the only one gaping though she was pretty sure Megan's face had a similar expression while Connor just eyed the girl critically.

"For the record." Mary said after a moment. "He doesn't like you much either." She told Connor who simply raised an eyebrow.

~O~

"So you can talk to animals." Tori clarified once all the hubbub had died down and the small group was settled around a table back at the dining pavilion. "And they listen?"

"Uh huh." Mary nodded smiling, her mouth covered in vanilla ice cream.

Tori sighed and ran a hand through her hair well this wasn't exactly what she had planned for the day. And she could have certainly done without the information that one of her kids from the center was a Meta. She was going to have a hard time convincing Nick about this one. Then again he might already know.

"Geez. Alright I better get you back to your brother." She said standing up from her seat. "Come on kid."

"Can Connor and Megan come too?" Mary asked hopping up and looking at the two teenager expectantly.

"Yeah sure." Tori said and motioned for the two to follow after her to the bus station. She sincerely hoped that not every day that she was being watched by the mini-justice league would be like this. She wasn't sure she could take so much excitement.

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><p>I feel like this chapter is a little dull... maybe that's just because for the past two weeks I've been fixated on the Avengers. DAMN YOU CLINT BARTON AND YOUR SEXY ASS! Ahem. Yeah I've seen that movie... three times already. I'm such a fangirl. As much as I would like to deny it I am. Stupid Avengers... they're too goddamn funny and awesome to resist. Don't worry though guys Smooth Criminal is still going. No worries.<p>

The next few chapters are going to be how Tori handles having the individual members of the team watching her and how she tries to get them to trust her. because lets face it I know I wouldn't want a bunch of impulsive super-powered kids suspecting me of anything. That would just be bad. Besides Tori needs more friends. Megan seems to be sort of okay with her! Abut I'd love to hear your guy's idea for anything you would like to see happen. There is a bit I have planned out for the different characters but i could always use some suggestions.

And on a random note you guys know FullMetal Alchemist right? Know how Ed sleeps with his stomach exposed sometimes and everyone seems to think it's bad for him? I just noticed the other day that I do the exact same thing. Kind of made me giggle.

Anyway moving on. Thanks to MissAce98, IonaDel, chickenchick, nom-nom-ichigo, and Rae-kawaii for faving and or alerting Smooth Criminal! Love ya guys!

And to the Reviews!

**Rae-Kawaii:** Thanks!~

**ImmatureChild: ** Artemis's reaction was a lot of fun to write and I'm was hoping people would like Tori's new identity. It took me forever to find a new name that I liked. Thanks for the review I'm happy you're happy!

**RunningQueen:** Reviewing late is cool. I can appreciate procrastination. I hope you like Tori as a hero... she's kinda gunna be useless for a bit though!

**bRoKEnhEaRTscROsSovER: **XD Man that must be hard. I'm so happy you like all of the chapters. As for termination Roy... they better not. He might look like a creep but I can't see them getting rid of him. At least I hope not!

**liontaming: **All the feels!

**Chances vs Pills:** Thanks for the well wishes and assuring me that I'm not a creeper. It made me really happy. And I'm so glad I was able to get Batman's no nonsense personality across I was afraid I'd screw it up or something. Thanks for the review as always.

Thanks so much for your support guys! It means so much and I really really hope to see everyone review this time. I love feedback it makes my world go round. Also I may have more... or less time to focus on Smooth Criminal fro the next few weeks. I may be starting a new job as a camp counselor so we'll see how it cuts into my writing time.

Lots of love and cookies! 

~Peter


	12. No Friend of Mine

**Guys! I'm back! OMG I'm so sorry about the long wait! As my Author's note said (If you saw the Author's note cause I replaced this chapter with it) life kinda came and bit me in the ass. BUT BUT BUT, now I have chapter twelve out and I should be updating more regularly, like ever week or two depending on how busy I am... but I'm not so we're all good right?**

**Also I know I said that I hated flashbacks and that I would never put one in a story but I lied you've been given fair warning.  
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**DISCLAIMER: I don't own DC comics or YJ. If I did my life would be a heck of a lot more interesting and I might actually be able to stand living with my mother cause I'd be a Meta with crazy ninja abilities.  
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**BTW Thanks to tori20444 for giving me a great idea for this chapter. Some of it was already there but I loved teh suggestion of having Wally and Artemis watch her together so I squished their days together.  
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**The first few paragraphs are in Artemis's point of view. Just FYI okay you can go on to the story now.  
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><p>Happy Harbor<p>

Mount Justice

October 13th 12:43 PDT

Artemis couldn't really help herself when she sent a glare in the direction of the Cave's kitchen area. It was a glare that had become automatic anytime she laid eyes on the older girl that she was supposed to be watching. Not that she tried to stop or hide the dirty looks. Tori, no _Victoria _deserved the dirty looks. She was a villain after all and a traitor and Artemis of all people would know that the majority of villains never did reform no matter what they said.

Why was she even allowed in the Cave in the first place? Because that was where they were currently settled. Batman had given the woman an access code so she could basically just pop in whenever she wanted. At least Artemis didn't have to watch her in Star City though, now at least she didn't have to worry about running into Red Arrow this way.

She really didn't understand that guy. He didn't like her because he thought she was suspicious, he thought she was the mole. And yet his girlfriend was a know thief, who had admitted to having connections with the shadows, and had been giving him trouble for years. Something was definitely wrong with that picture. And yet Artemis seemed to be the only one to notice or care.

"Hey Arty, you sure you don't want anything?" Wally called over to her with a big grin on his freckled face. He was with Victoria in the kitchen, watching her make whatever kind of food she was mixing currently. In all honesty she was probably Wally's new favourite person, making him food when he asked. Artemis snorted and rolled her eyes before she turned her back and huffed. She couldn't place the feeling but she really didn't like that Wally was being so chummy with Victoria.

"If she gets hungry she'll come find something." Victoria's voice drifted over and Artemis scowled at the wall as if it had personally wronged her. She sounded so calm and so sure. That damn woman didn't know her at all!

"Whatever you say gorgeous. How much longer til that's done?"Wally asked as Tori continued mixing the ingredients for lemon squares in the bowl she was holding. Wally had been asking her to cook various different things since she had walked into the cave. So far he had completely devoured two batches of banana bread, three bowls of chocolate pudding, a sandwich he had made while she worked on the pudding and was now waiting for her to finish the squares.

"After I put this in the oven I'll have to make the glaze... but we're almost out of sugar." Tori said giving a pointed look to the boy who appeared for a second to be extremely sheepish. It _was_ sort of his fault that they were out of sugar. "And stop calling me gorgeous. I'm too old for you, kid."

"You're like what, eighteen?" Wally asked with a grin and waggled his eyebrows. "That's not too much older, I'll be sixteen in February."

Tori gave a short laugh. "And I'm dating one of your best friends. Do you want me to tell him you're hitting on his girlfriend?"

"I'll go get that sugar." He said with a nervous laugh. "Be back in a few."

And then he was gone, leaving Tori alone in a heavy atmosphere with the blond archer who seemed to be dutifully ignoring her. Tori shot a glance to the girl as she poured the mix she had just finished into a baking pan then placed it carefully into the preheated oven.

"You know, if you want anything to eat Artemis-" Tori began slowly.

"I don't want anything from you!" Artemis snapped and turned in her seat to give Tori an absolutely venomous look. "You may have won over Megan and Wally with your little goody act but I know what you're really like."

Tori didn't reply to the angry girl immediately, her expression was one of surprise although she really should not have been. Quickly Tori's expression melted into something much softer and she moved around the kitchen counter and over to the couches where Artemis was sitting. She leaned her hip casually against the one opposite where Artemis was seated, knowing that getting too close would probably be a bad idea.

"Artemis... I'm not acting." She said calmly. "If this is about what happened when we were kids I-"

"This has nothing to do with that!" Artemis exploded her expression exasperated and her posture stiff as she glared. However with how she had answered and how fast Tori knew that she'd hit a sore spot for the young archer. "This has everything to do with you trying to be all nice with everyone and then betraying them."

"Like I betrayed you?" Tori asked sharply and raised an eyebrow. Artemis only gaped at her until her eyes narrowed but she said nothing.

"Look Artemis... I'm sorry about what happened to your mom and that you had to put up with your dad, but I did what I had to do." Tori said calmly but her eyes were sad as she remembered the events of the past.

"If you were sorry you wouldn't have gotten my mom thrown in jail and then taken off with my sister and left me behind." Artemis growled.

Tori allowed a small frown to worm its way onto her face. "Your mother made her choice, as did your sister." She said She could clearly remember the day that Artemis was speaking about, she had been there after all, had witnessed everything. When she had said that their families had been close she had been understating it. Thick as thieves would have been an accurate description except they really were thieves.

_A twelve year old Tori watched on as the adults spoke quietly amongst themselves. She knew better than to dare make a sound. They were on a job and she wasn't allowed to speak for fear of being found out, or worse punishment from her father. She was their fool proof escape plan for this job as she often was for her father. Her shadow teleporting abilities were something her father took full advantage of whenever he would. She wasn't allowed to refuse because the one time she had... well... she whimpered and looked down at the obviously fake, plastic prosthetic arm that was attached to her left shoulder. The meaning 'to pay an arm and a leg' was one she learned very young. _

_A glance sent in her direction from her father made her cower back into the shadows, where she was supposed to hide. She was sure he couldn't have heard the noise she made but he glared at her none the less in warning as he approached her. _

"_Stay here." He hissed "Don't move until we get back." Silently she had nodded her eyes cast down to avoid having to look at him any longer than she had to._

_She waited for a long time, she couldn't remember how long, all she knew for sure was that she was half asleep when she heard footsteps coming toward her. Sleepily she got to her feet and rubbed her eyes looking out from the shadows to see who was approaching. _

_At first all she saw was Huntress, Mrs. Crock, who had always been kind to her despite what her father said. It was because of Mrs. Crock that she could be friends with Artemis and Jade and could train with them even though none of them really liked that. After a moment though she realized that Mrs. Crock was not alone, there were men chasing her. Men with guns. _

_Hesitantly she stepped partially out of the shadows, thinking that she had to get Mrs. Crock away from the men but the woman hardly stopped only pausing to grab the young girl's hand to pull her along. _

_The girl stumbled along behind the woman as they turned a corner just as bullets sprayed past them and Tori let a small cry escape her mouth out of fear. She'd never been shot at before. "What happened!" She asked Mrs. Crock while they ran. _

"_We got caught." Mrs. Crock said shortly, she couldn't explain right now. Not while they were running for their lives. Tori heard more bullets behind them and screamed when one shot past her face. She didn't notice Mrs. Crock fall in front of her until she managed to get herself tangled in her legs. _

_Tori looked up when she heard Mrs. Crock yell in pain and she quickly got off of her legs. There was blood on the woman's back, right at the base of her spine. At the time Tori didn't understand why even though Mrs. Crock was in pain her legs weren't moving. _

"_Sorry!" She gasped fearfully as the men with guns got closer down the hall. "Sorry." she repeated. _

"_It's fine Tori it's fine." Mrs. Crock said as she tried to pull herself up without success."Go,you have to run." _

"_B-but what about you and dad and..." She said glancing nervously at the men who were still getting closer. _

"_Just go!" Mrs. Crock shouted and that startled Tori into running Mrs. Crock had never yelled at her like that before. She immediately heard the men down the hall shouting, and she knew they were coming for her so she dove into the nearest shadow she could find, one caused by a large statue, and disappeared to the place she knew she would be safe for now._

"_Tori!" Jade gasped when the girl walked out of the shadow in the corner of the room that the two Crock siblings shared. Artemis was sitting on her bed playing with her teddy and Jade was standing now, having gotten off her bed. _

_Tori couldn't help but start to cry when she saw them. "J-Jade! They caught her! They caught your mom!" She gasped. _

"_What?" Both of the other girls cried together. _

_Jade immediately looked at her younger sister and the two older girls exchanged a look. "Artemis can you go get some tissues for Tori's face?" Jade asked and it was then that Tori realized she was crying. Artemis, suspecting nothing, nodded and quickly ran off to get said item. _

"_What happened?" Jade asked when Artemis had left. So Tori explained what had happened as fast as she could while Jade listened quietly. "What happened to our dads?" She asked when she finished._

_At this Tori visibly became paler. She'd forgotten about that. He father would be furious, he'd punish he again for forgetting them and leaving to save herself. She'd be lucky if she was alive in the morning. "Oh... Jade he's going to kill me!" She said in a loud whisper. She was terrified she knew jade could see it on her face because the Vietnamese girl too looked frightened. _

"_No he's not." Jade said her expression suddenly going stony. "We're going to run away."_

_Tori gaped at her. "We can't do that! They hunt us down and we'll be in even more trouble."_

"_No they won't we can hide... you can use your shadow abilities to hide us and move us." Jade said calmly a gleam in her eyes that Tori wasn't sure she liked but at the same time was drawn to. It did sound like a good idea when jade put it like that. _

"_What about Artemis? She could get hurt." Tori asked looking out the door for a sign of the little blond girl only two years her younger. "We can't take her with us."_

"_No she's probably safest here." Jade agreed with a nod though she looked sad. "She'll be able to fend for herself I think. Dad's not as hard on her as he is on me and you. Okay... go get your stuff... just what you need. I'll get mine and I'll tell Artemis. Meet me on the street corner." _

"_You sure about this Jade?" Tori asked in a small voice._

"_Yes unless we do were both going to be worse off. Now go!" _

_Hastily Tori nodded and ran back to the shadows so she could go to her father's apartment so she could gather what few things she owned before she headed out to the street corner where she waited impatiently outside the light of the street light for Jade. After what seemed like forever her friend appeared._

"_What took you?" Tori asked looking around them as she fidgeted and looked around them warily. _

"_Artemis was hard to get rid of... and I forgot my tooth brush." Jade whispered and took Tori's hand. "Are you ready?"_

_Slowly Tori nodded and stepped back into the shadows with her friend. They couldn't look back now she thought as her eyes changed from green to black. She would never come back to Gotham or else she would die, she knew that for certain. This was the only option for them... there was no looking back._

Tori had never regretted leaving Artemis behind that night, especially not now when she saw how the girl had managed to break apart from the darkness that her family had raised her in. Not when she knew the trials of living on the streets and being forced into something she hated.

"Look Artemis." She said blatantly ignoring the dirty look that was sent in her direction. "I know you think that you had it bad with your father, you probably did I won't argue that. But if you had come with Jade and I you would have ended up in a much worse place. I didn't join the Shadows because I wanted to, but because I had to."

"Like I'd take your word for it." Artemis scoffed.

"I'm not lying Artemis. You of all people should know what the Shadows are like. When they found your sister and I it was wither join or die." Tori tried to reason with her and she slowly saw the tension in Artemis's shoulders ease just a little. She was still scowling though.

"You could have come back and gotten me out of there." She grumbled.

"You were doing pretty good on your own." Tori gave a small smile. "I mean, look where you turned out. Part of a covert ops team for the Justice League, guarding the world from villains like me."

Tori could tell Artemis was trying not to let a prideful smile slip onto her face and after a moment she succeeded and made sure she was firmly scowling. "I still don't trust you."

"Trust is earned Artemis, not taken. I'd be disappointed if you did trust me." Tori replied wisely even though the last thing she would ever consider herself as wise. She moved to get up just as the timer on the oven dinged. They were quiet for a few minutes before Artemis spoke again.

"Wally seems to trust you" Artemis said dryly. Tori gave a quick glance back wondering at the strange tone that was in Artemis's voice. Was she... jealous?

"Hmm... no he doesn't He pretends to be friendly so he can keep a closer eyes on me. He glares at my back when he thinks I'm not looking." Tori said as she pulled on her oven mitts and smoothly pulled her squares out of the oven. "Isn't that right Speedster?"

As she called out she heard a yelp and a crash and she glanced back over her shoulder to see Wally spreadeagled on the floor, pouting that he had been found out."

"How long have you been listening to us!" Artemis growled getting up from the couch to stand over the fallen red head menacingly with a dark scowl on her face. She did not take kindly to eavesdropping.

"Uh... something about not trusting her?" Wally replied in the form of a question as he pointed in Tori's direction as if it would help. "How did you even know I was there?" He asked Tori now not bothering to hide the look of suspicion on his face when he looked at her.

Tori shrugged nonchalantly and turned back to her pan of squares that she carefully put on a cooling rack. "Years of practice. My best friend liked to sneak into my apartment when I was out and wait for me to see if she could catch me off guard. And trust me, Cheshire is a much better ninja than you are."

"You're best friends with Cheshire! Didn't she try to kill you?" Wally exclaimed loudly. "Some best friend."

"She's not really that bad of a person. She just can't disobey the Shadows... Unfortunately for her, they know what she's trying to protect." Tori sent a short glance to Artemis who stiffened when their eyes met for the briefest of moments. Wally didn't seem to notice at all so Tori abruptly changed the subject. "Did you get that sugar?"

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><p>Ah Wally a ninja you are not! I kind of feel like Tori and Artemis can try to patch up their relationship after this and that they kind of understand each other a bit more. You know that warm feeling you got in your chest as you were reading this... yeah that's a good feeling. Haha Sorry I'm crazy.<p>

On another note I'M SO SORRY! I know this is terribly late but after I left the coffee shop my mother and I got into a huge fight which resulted in her threatening to kick me out and so I've been going through some stuff that has left me very unmotivated to write. But you guys don't want to hear my sob story.

On a side note my birthday was on the 17th... can anyone guess how old I am?

Thanks to Music Moon Queen, Skylar Kitten, ParalyzedInHeaven, Edward Cullen's Girl, KrazyCookieRaider, I didnt know vampires sparkled, Always A Batman Fan, Miniaon, elowil, Kago of the Funk, HeirxxOfxxMerlin, and goldenrose72 for faving and alerting! Thanks so much guys I love you!

Review time!

**RedArrow-love HIM**: You didn't review but you messaged me and I was very happy that you did! You're support and kind words are kind of what gave me the motivation to finally put this chapter up so everyone give Red a clap on the back!

**BookwormStrawberry**: I know I'm a genius *lets compliment go to her head* But in all seriousness thank you! I was very reassured that you didn;t think the ending was boring and that you loved Mary. Thank you so much!

**RunningQueenx5**: I know I didn't update soon and I apologize for that. But I hope Mary kept you tied over cause she is adorable. We all wish we had her power.

**Abbie Brown**: Thanks so much I'm glad you like it so much. And you know as soon as I saw that you had seen the Avengers four times I got all competitive... so I streamed it on my computer so I could see it again... now we're even! Renner for the WIN!

**tori20444**: It doesn't sound dumb at all.I loved you're idea. did you see the shoutout I gave you at the top of the chapter. if you didn't I bet you just went to look huh?;P Thanks for you're help!

**ImmatureChild**:Isn't she though? I hope you like this encounter as much as the last!

**Mary**: The girl of the hour everyone! Glad you liked it Mary that one was especially for you! And Shmoy better not be tied up! I thought I told you no more rope!

**Chances vs Pills**: I hope you liked Tori's interaction with Wally. I know I enjoyed it very much! Glad you liked the Avengers to and while I'm not as big a fan of Steve as I am of some of the others I do know how to appreciate his abs... mmmmm.

**BlackBelt**: Thanks for you're review it was much appreciated!

Okay I think that's the end of the reviews for now. That's good cause it's one in the morning here and I have to get up early. Man I fail. Anyways Next chapter takes place during 'Failsafe' but Tori's not in the simulation before you get your hopes up... instead a Spa day with Canary and a surprise! XD YAY~

Review guys! I'm at 76! If everyone who watches this story were to review it I would make it over 100! Do it for me as a belated birthday present? Please!

Love guys, lots and lots of YJ love!

~Peter


	13. This Time Around

**Ummmm... Hi guys... it's been a while hasn't it? Ehehee. PLEASE DON'T KILL ME! I am so so so so so so sooooooo sorry for how ling it has taken me to update! I really can't give any excuse other than I kind of just lost all of my motivation to write this story for a while. I actually tried writing other stories to get those creative juices flowing to feed my plot bunnies but the bunnies decided that they hated me so yeah. Also I blame LOZ: Twilight Princess... stupid addictive game.  
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**Anyway. Again I am super sorry for not updating as soon as I hoped. I really hope you all can forgive me for being a lazy bum. If you do I might just upload a picture I did of Tori/Spade/Nix I did while I was gone so you guys can see what she looks like... at least what she looks like in my head anyway.  
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**DISCLAIMER: I don not own any rights to DC Comics Young Justice or any variant. I just own my Ocs whom I am horrible to despite the fact that I love them.  
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><p>Happy Harbor<p>

Mount Justice

October 16th 11:54 PDT

Are you absolutely sure this is safe?" Tori asked as she watched the team lay down on the cots in the training room that had been laid out in a full circle. Her eyes narrowed slightly when she noticed Batman send her a brief glare like expression(one could never really tell with the mask) and she would have kept her mouth shut had that mothering instinct she felt with kids not taken over her.

"I can assure you that this exercise is perfectly safe." Martian Manhunter said in his calm soothing voice that really didn't do anything to help ease Tori's worry for the team. She'd been told when she arrived at the mountain that morning that the team would be undergoing a psychic exercise, a mission that was not real. They had said it would be perfectly safe, but Tori had a hard time trusting their words even if those words were Batman's. These were children's minds, a person's psyche was a delicate thing and who knew what could happen when they were put under stress during the exercise.

"Don't worry Tori, we'll be okay." Megan gave her an assuring smile. Tori smiled back and nodded in agreement but there was still a strange pit in her stomach.

She could still feel Batman glaring at the side of her head even as she watched Megan sit on her cot. Technically she wasn't even supposed to be at the Mountain in the first place. She was supposed to be with Black Canary in Star City but she had come by the cave to drop off an old cookbook she had for Megan that she though the Martian could use. That had been when she had walked in on the adults giving the younger generation of superheroes the explanation of the mental exercise.

Tori couldn't explain the horrible feeling she'd experienced when she'd heard what they were doing. Tampering with someone's mind was something she just did not agree with, even if it was for learning or training purposes and was supposedly safe. She was worried about these kids, they were young, too young in her opinion, to be doing what they did but that wasn't exactly her decision to make and nor could she tell them anything otherwise. After all she had started her career as a villain and thief when she was younger than most of them. That didn't mean she liked what they were doing now though.

"Aren't you supposed to be meeting Black Canary?" Batman said suddenly and though Tori knew she was intimidated by him she couldn't help herself when she sent a dirty look in the direction of the darkly cowled man. He hardly seemed to register the look and his eyes narrowed even more on her. Yeah she got the hint, she had to go.

"Alright fine, I'll go find Canary. Have fun with... this..." She made a vague waving motion with her hand around her head to indicate that she thought what they were doing was madness. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Artemis cover a smirk. It had only been three days since their talk with each other, but things seemed to be less strained between the two, of only a little.

With another wave to the team she turned towards the Zeta tubes and made her way out. She glanced briefly over her shoulder, unable to help herself as the transporter whirred to life. The light that appeared before her blinded her and she felt the strange sensation of her body being teleported away.

When she arrived back in Star City it didn't take her long to try and locate Black Canary, or rather she would call her Dinah today since they would be out and about in their civvies. The blonde woman was waiting for her not far from the zeta tube location, it was as if she had known exactly where Tori was going to go all along. It seemed likely that Dinah had been following her since she had set out from her apartment and had just let her do as she pleased when she had gotten to the cave, since there really wasn't any sort of trouble Tori could cause while surrounded by several members of the Justice League. Tori would let the blonde woman believe that for now.

"Hey ready to go?" Dinah asked when Tori had hopped into the car her mentor was driving. She'd parked it close to the zeta location under the pretense of going to the league headquarters in case Tori asked, but Tori wasn't stupid, she doubted Canary would go to the headquarters in civilian clothing. At least Dinah was a heck of a lot sneakier than Connor.

'Whenever you are." The teen replied with a shrug and strapped her seat belt across her body as Dinah pulled the car back out onto the street. Dinah had finally conned her into going on that spa day that she had promised back when the two had first met. Tori was a little hesitant, but Dinah promised that it would be worth the trouble and Tori felt very little inclination to argue with the woman on the manner. Besides it had been a long time since she'd been to any kind of spa.

The spa they ended up at was a lot fancier than the dark haired girl had anticipated. It was nothing at all like the little one that Jade managed to drag her to sometimes in the past. As soon as the two women had stepped foot in the doors there were pretty and well manicured associates fussing over them, deciding what treatments they needed and how their hair should be done.

The women started to practically drag Tori away from Dinah who stood in the lobby calmly and the younger woman looked over to her mentor in confusion. "Dinah?" She questioned. Wasn't the blond woman coming with her?

"Have fun Tori!" Dinah called with a traitorous smile on her face. Tori's eye narrowed, something was up.

"I'll get you for this!" She called and Dinah laughed as if she had been joking. But no Tori was dead serious, Dinah was going to pay for abandoning her to the mercy of these women she didn't know.

After unsuccessfully trying to avoid the topics of various different 'treatments' Tori finally gave up. She let them fuss over her hair and nails. She even allowed them to come near her face with tweezers and worst of all wax strips. She was sure that her poor eyebrows and legs would be sore for a week after this. In the back of her head she couldn't help but think that if Jade knew about this she would have been having a good laugh at Tori's expense. The thought itself made her realise how much she actually missed her best friend's company, but with the Shadows looking for her and the Justice League watching her every move she couldn't even try to contact Jade for a casual outing.

Eventually after several different treatments Tori was brought to something familiar. Getting her nails done. The girl who was attending to her now and asking her what she wanted done with her nails was perky, blonde and seemed overly sociable. Tori had a feeling that she wouldn't get this one to shut up.

"So what's it like?" The girl, whose name tag read 'Anna' asked when Tori had finally picked out a nail color.

"What's what like?" Tori replied, thinking about how Jade usually knew what to do at spas better than she did. She'd never had to worry about what color her nails should be or if she would have to get a manicure or not. That was Jade's forte. It made her kind of sad that her best friend was not here with her. Soon the attendant's voice broke her from her thoughts not even noticing that her client had zoned out.

"What's it like dating Roy Harper? I mean usually he seems so serious and the tabloids could never pin him with a girl before you." Anna gushed and Tori mentally gave a sigh. She had been hoping she could avoid being recognized by anyone here. Every time someone noticed her these days it was always Roy Harper this and Roy Harper that, just because he was famous or whatever. She only ever got a break from that at work and only because her co-workers and the kids knew that she liked to keep her private life private.

Honestly it kind of irritated her, but it wasn't because of Roy or his popularity, mostly it was because people couldn't see that just because he was famous didn't mean he wasn't another normal person who sometimes needed to kick back and relax and not have the tabloids on his ass. Not that Roy really was a normal person anyway. Normal people didn't run around in spandex, catching bad guys and dating ex-cons. Not that she was really on to talk though.

"Aside from everything we do becoming public knowledge I can't complain." Tori said unable to completely hide the fact that she was a little irritated. Anna didn't seem to notice at all considering she never took her eyes off of her work on Tori's nails.

"So is he really as serious as he seems?"

Tori wasn't sure she felt comfortable discussing Roy with someone she really didn't know, but she could think of no way to actually avoid the topic without seeming rude and possibly possessive. She really didn't want something like that going to the tabloids. Mind you if what she said here somehow got out and the media twisted her words like they liked to do with everyone, then Roy would be furious. He was already still mad enough at her as it was she didn't want to make things worse. Oh the dilemma.

"Well?" Anna prodded and Tori sighed in defeat.

"He can be." She replied slowly as she thought over her words. "But he's not always like that, only when he has to be."

"He seemed so be like that a lot lately." Anna said her eyes still not leaving her work. "I mean according to the tabloids anyway. He's hardly been seen in public lately, even with you. Did something happen?"

Now, Tori was sure that the girl didn't mean to upset or offend her with her words and she could understand her curiosity. But that didn't stop her anger from flaring. She really had no desire to be reminded that Roy was still very much upset with her. She understood that too. She just felt as if he had been intentionally trying to avoid her aside from his shifts guarding her with the other members of the team. It was a little upsetting. However Tori was saved from actually replying when another, older woman walked into the room, hearing the last of the conversation.

"Now that, Anna, is none of your business. If this woman wanted the world to know about whether or not she and her boyfriend were having problems it would have already been in one of those trashy magazines you read."

At this Anna actually looked up from her work and gaped like a fish at the older woman. Her eyes darted between the older woman and Tori.

"O-oh right of course! I don't know when to shut my mouth!" She stumbled over an apology and at a swift motion from the other woman finished the last of her work and left the room quickly.

"I'm sorry about her. She is rather new and isn't familiar with the term 'don't ask, don't tell' yet." The woman explained.

"It's alright." Tori replied trying her best to keep the surprise from her face.

The older woman smiled at her and held out her hand to gingerly shake Tori's as he nails weren't completely dry yet. "My name is Amanda, since your nails are done, why don't we move on to the next part of your appointment?"

By the time Tori was had gone through three more treatments, it was getting late in the day and though she had been able to relax the whole day she was eager to get home so she could check on how the team's exercise had gone. She was sure that everything was fine just as batman and Manhunter had said it would be but there was still that little niggling doubt in her mind that made her want to be sure.

So when she walked back into the lobby, her mind consumed in her thoughts, she didn't immediately notice that it was not Dinah waiting for her like she was expecting, but a tall handsome read head who was watching her intently from where he was leaning against the front desk.

It wasn't until he cleared his throat that she raised her head to look at him and a huge smile broke out onto her face. It quickly turned into a sly grin though as she approached him and he raised a questioning eyebrow.

"What?" He asked and she just gave a slight shrug.

"Nothing. It's just... Wow Dinah, I heard this place was good at complete makeovers but I guess seeing really is believing." She said with a straight face all the while watching as his morphed into a playful scowl.

"Oh you're hilarious Tori." He said dryly but a chuckle escaped him none the less.

"What are you doing here anyway? Today is Dinah's day to keep an eye on me." She said once she was sure her joke was taken in good humour.

"I can't come see you when I like?" He asked a little frown worming its way onto his face.

Tori shook her head, casting a short glance around. She didn't want to have this conversation here so she took his hand and led him outside where his car was parked out front. He got in without question and it was only once they were on the road did he speak again since Tori didn't seem to be keen on talking suddenly.

"Tori?" He asked carefully as he glanced over to her. She was staring at her hands while she picked at her newly polished thumbs.

"Hmm?" Was her only reply. And he sighed.

"Are you upset that I came to see you?" He asked and Tori answered with a snort.

"No." She replied. "Just surprised. You've been avoiding me unless you had babysitting duty, I didn't think you would voluntarily come to see me." She was surprised at the hurt in her own voice. She knew exactly why he was avoiding her, it wasn't hard to figure out. He was trying to distance himself from her in case she really did turn out to be still working for the Shadows. She didn't blame him really. She would have done the same thing if their positions were reversed. It would keep him from getting hurt anymore than he already was. It didn't mean she wasn't hurt by it though.

"I haven't been..." He trailed off when she shot him a look. One that told him she knew he was lying through his teeth. "Sorry."

"It's okay. I get it." She said with a shrug as she looked out the window at the buildings that passed by them.

"Tori..." He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. Suddenly he pulled the car over, startling her and put the vehicle in park. He leaned back against his seat and closed his eyes while Tori watched him in utter confusion. It was a good few minutes before he said anything at all.

"You're... right." He said at a length. "I have been avoiding you. After everything that's happened I thought it would be better that way... safer." He sighed and she nodded. However she was still confused. Usually with something like this, Roy would sound more... angry. Not reserved and timid like he was. It was a weird. Whenever he talked about her betrayal he always sounded angry.

"Roy you don't have to explain." She said finally since he seemed to be waiting for her to respond. "I know I did something incredibly stupid. And you have the right to be angry. I mean I would be."

"I'm not angry Tori." He interrupted her and she looked over at him and realized something she hadn't noticed before. He wasn't angry, not in the way that someone who was truly mad should had seen people made before, children, adults... her father. She wasn't sure how she had completely missed it but Roy wasn't just mad, he was scared. It was just like how he disliked Artemis. He wasn't angry at her for lying about being Green Arrow's niece. He was scared for his friends he didn't want them to get hurt. Despite what he said about the 'Junior Justice League'.

But that wasn't just it either, she realized. He wasn't just scared for himself and Ollie and Dinah, since she knew their identities. He was scared for her. She was being hunted. He was scared she'd be found out too.

"I am so sorry." She whispered feeling stupid for not seeing this before. Maybe she was being angry with him too.

There was silence in the car for a while. Neither of them said anything, neither of them knew how to. It was awkward like two teenagers on a first date and no one knew how to start an interesting conversation.

"So why the change of heart?" Tori asked at last after she took several minutes to find her voice. She suddenly felt very small.

He question actually got a dry laugh from Roy and she looked over at him, confused when she saw him smiling. "What's so funny?" She asked.

"Well I actually got reamed out by Dinah after she found me at one of my safe houses." He said with a small cringe and Tori actually couldn't help the smile that split her face too. The idea of Roy getting scolded like a child was an amusing one. "She told me some things I needed to hear even if I didn't want to listen and I came to a conclusion."

"Which was?" Tori asked.

Now Roy snorted and shook his head. She took that to mean that he wasn't going to tell her. Not yet anyway. She had a feeling that maybe he would eventually.

"So where do we stand now?" She asked after he said nothing. They hadn't had a chance to talk about it since the whole incident. Well other than deciding that they had to tell Oliver and Dinah and get the teams help. But Tori needed to know where they stood. Were they still dating? Were they broken up? She knew things couldn't just go back to the way they were. They both knew that. Now that they each knew who the other really was, they couldn't go back and pretend that nothing had happened.

"I'm not really sure..." He said at last. And Tori felt her heart sink a bit. "After everything... maybe we should just... Start over."

"Start over?" Tori repeated. "Like from the beginning?"

"From the beginning." He nodded and she felt herself nodding in agreement. It was better than she had been expecting. Of course, starting from the beginning had some flaws. They already knew a lot about each other. And she knew she couldn't just pretend that nothing had happened before. It would probably be weird for a little while until they got into the swing of things.

"Well then." She said turning in her seat to face him. "I'm Victoria Chase. Friends call me Tori." She held out her hand to him with a grin on her face. He raised an eyebrow but took her hand and shook it. This wasn't like how they had met the first time at all but it would have to do. This time around would be different.

"Roy Harper. Would you like to join me for lunch Tori?" He asked almost stiffly as if he was just a little bit uncomfortable.

She just smiled at him. "I'd love to"

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><p>And there! Done! I hoped you all liked this chapter because it is totally different from what it was originally supposed to be. Well the beginning was the same but everything after that was different. This chapter was such a pain in the butt cause I actually had no idea what i was trying to do other than some how try and patch up the relationship issues Tori and Roy were having. Well sort of. I kind of like how it turned out, even if it does smell of cheese. Maybe I should do a little one shot of Dinah yelling at Roy... I think that would be funny. But maybe not, we'll see how my writing schedule works on from here on out.<p>

Alright! Thank you to hazelstorm92, NekoKittyNinja, TeamXtremexfan, raeinfullbuster, Lalalaaady, klspun, OCLover89, Nyx'sBlackRose, Scarlett Wolf, Shikketsu, SilverCheetah-the-Yautja-Ambu, CHIBI-CRAZY, Owlettes, MiniVillian, RedArrow-love HIM, PSYCH0xSEXY, and Lilyblossom01 for adding Smooth Criminal to your favs and/or alert lists! It means a lot to me!

And to the Reviews!**  
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**Music Moon Queen:**Thanks for your review. And don't worry there will be more confrontations in the future. Not necessarily with Artemis though.

**liontaming: **Thank you my dear.

**Chickenchick:** Thanks for the birthday wishes! And you're right! I turned 20 this year!

**amberBELA: **Thank you very very much for your support! And for the birthday wishes! I hope you enjoy this update too.

**Azulish:** Thanks my dear! You're awesome. I'll defiantly call on you if I need an ear sometime. i would have like ages ago but my interwebs has been down on and off throughout the summer so thanks! (And I believe you!)

**RunningQueenx5:**... I hope you weren't waiting next to the computer for this update otherwise I fear I may be talking to a skeleton... or Zombie. We will see more of Tori's past as the story progresses. Maybe more so in later chapters.

**Chances vs Pills: **I hope that if you have anymore questions about Tori's past you won't hesitate to ask. I'll answer them as best I can so long as it doesn't give anything in the plot away. I hope you liked this chapter too!

**ImmatureChild:** Don't worry everything will be found out eventually! Pretty sure the League... or at least Batman knows who her dad is. If you have any questions please ask!

**Lalalaaady:** Umm... reading your review makes me wonder if it was meant for this story or if it just ended up on my account. Pretty sure Rob and Wally are not in a relationship and I doubt I mentioned DaddyBats but hey it's all cool.

SUPER sorry about the late update guys. I'll try to get the next one out asap. and for those of you who are wondering who gets to 'babysit' Tori next time I'll give ya a little to tide you over... Ah ha tide... so umm that's a pun if you knew what i was talking about... okay I'll just give you the gist of things.

**NEXT TIME!:** (Cause bold is dramatic) Tori is sent on a trip to Atlantis with Aqualad on orders from the Justice League who haven't told her anything about why she's going. you'd think she's be grateful but...


	14. Euphoria

**Hi guys! Don't eat me please! I know I've been gone a while but there is a reason! Sorta... not really. Life just kinda hit me in the face and I got distracted by the Avengers... again. I'M SORRY! I didn't mean it. But if it makes you feel better it gave me motivation and lots of bunnies to come back to Smooth Criminal so I can write it the way I wanted to. I hope you're all still interested in the story cause I worked super hard on this chapter to make it awesome. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own DC comics or Young Justice. If I did it wouldn't have gone on a hiatus AGAIN!  
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**Also, excuse all the fish and sea puns in this. There's only a few and I didn't realize they were there until I read over this chapter again. Please enjoy otherwise!  
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><p>Happy Harbour<p>

Mount Justice

October 20th 10:23 PDT

One would think that today was the perfect day in Happy Harbour. The sun was shining and it wasn't terribly cold considering the season. Very few clouds hovered in the sky and even they were little more than wisps but best of all there was no report of any major villain activity in the area. Oh sure there was still the occasional small crime such as theft but that was somewhat expected while living in such a large city. However as the civilians enjoyed probably one of the last nice days before the weather turned no one seemed to notice the storm that was brewing steadily over the mountain that sided the coastline that the Justice League had once used as their base of operations. Now this storm was a proverbial storm that had nothing to do with the weather, however the current occupants of the mountain were the ones who had to bear the brunt end of this storm for there was one in particular that had caused it.

"I don't really care _what_ your reasoning is; I'm not letting a bunch of strangers poke and prod me like some science experiment." Tori growled haughtily at probably the last person she should have been arguing with.

Batman simply glared at her, not that she could tell with his face partially covered and the part she could see remaining a stoic mask. She had the distinct feeling that he was sending her a dirty look though. She seemed to be getting more and more of those from him every time they encountered one another. It should have been a sign that she should really stop getting into fights with the senior League member but his constant need to order her around grated on her nerves. She wasn't one of his little mini heroes that he could push around. Technically she was a villain under surveillance, he should have expected her to argue and be generally hard to work with.

"This is for your own good." You'd be wise to just get it over with." Batman said, his voice pulling at the young woman's nerves even more. She could sense the inevitable 'or else' at the end of his sentence even if he hadn't made any indication of it with his tone.

"You know it's morally wrong to force me into doing something I don't want to do." She quipped back stubbornly. "And I'm pretty sure the Justice League has rules against that kind of stuff."

Batman glared at her even harder because technically she was right. He'd just been hoping to intimidate her into agreeing but that really didn't seem to be working out. Even though he could tell she was intimidated by him, maybe even scared as he thought most villains, ex-cons or not, would be in the face of someone who could cart them off to jail, she stood her ground. If she was anything she was definitely stubborn, especially over something like going to the doctor.

"Recognized, Superboy, B-zero- four. Recognized, Miss Martian, B-zero-five." The computer announced as the Zeta tubes whirred to life, Tori didn't even look over to see the two teens walk into the mission room but she heard their footsteps stop when they noticed her and Batman standing several meters apart glaring at each other while Aqualad looked as if her wished he could be any other place then between the two.

Of course it was his own fault really that the argument had started in the first place seeing as it had been him that had invited her to spend the day with him in Atlantis with him since it was his shift on babysitting duty and he had matters to attend to with Aquaman. Of course then Batman had showed up practically demanding that the Atlantian take her to the science center in Atlantis with absolutely no explanation as to why he wanted her to do so.

Tori didn't blame Kaldur though. He had just been trying to be friendly. He was the only one on the team besides Megan to try to get to know her at all, and even Megan was still pretty guarded. She suspected that the only reason Kaldur was even giving her a chance was because of Roy. The two were good friends from what she could gather and the Atlantian seemed like the type to allow second chances so long as he thought you were sincere in actually wanting one.

But there was still the issue of Batman.

"What's going on?" Megan asked looking first at the leader of the League and then to Tori. When neither of Batman or the girl replied Kaldur decided to enlighten Megan by answering her question.

"Batman wishes for Tori to have some medical tests done while she accompanies me to Atlantis today so we can better understand her power and the illness that results of it." He explained calmly. Of course he really had no idea what exactly this illness was, or the seriousness of it. Tori had only told Roy, Dinah and Oliver about how fatal it really could be. She suspected that Batman also knew but she wasn't entirely sure how much he knew or how many other Leaguers knew of her 'condition'.

Megan wrinkled her nose at the idea of the tests, seeing that Tori was definitely not pleased with it and even Superboy stiffened at the mention of it. The former thief sort of understood the look of anger that crossed his face. Surprisingly she knew of his circumstances and how he was really a clone. It had been an accident when she found out but he had mentioned something of it when she and Megan had been discussing her days working for the League of Shadows. She rarely received information on anyone on the team. They pretty much tried to keep their true identities and anything concerning their missions or the justice League under wraps in case it turned out she really was a spy and was still working for the Shadows. It bugged her sometimes but she realised she would do the same thing if she were in their shoes.

"And I've already told Batman countless times that I have no desire to go through any more tests. I already know how my power relates to my illness and I'm happy to continue getting through it on my own." She said breaking from her thoughts and getting back to the matter at hand. She didn't need anyone else sticking her with needles to figure out what was wrong with her when she had already endured it to obtain her medication.

"I've already told you, it's for your own good." The older man growled and Tori simply scoffed in disbelief. It was for his own good so he had something to use against her should she really turn against them.

Batman must've decided that he had enough of her foolishness because he turned abruptly and stalked out of the cave. Tori entertained the idea of Batman stomping out like a petulant child to entertain herself for a moment but it didn't bring her as much enjoyment as she thought it would. A full grown man throwing a tantrum like that would have been a sad sight indeed. And an equally sad day for the Justice League considering he was their leader.

After he'd left Tori was sure she should have felt some sort of sense of victory over having, in theory, won an argument with Batman. She didn't have to get any stupid tests done and the Dark Knight was off of her back about the matter, but instead she just felt tired, as if the whole ordeal had drained her of energy. She figured it was because all of her nerves had been fried. Batman was an intimidating and truly terrifying opponent no matter whose side she was on.

"Are we going to go Kaldur?" She asked the Atlantian with a sigh.

Kaldur gave a curt nod and began fishing something out of his pocket. When he handed it to her she took it carefully in her fingers and examined the device she'd been given. It looked like one of those oxygen masks one would find at the hospital with a little air canister attached on either side but she had a feeling it did a lot more than just look weird.

"It's a modified rebreather." Kaldur explained when she shot him a look of confusion. "Though it looks small it has been spelled by the Queen so that the pressure of the ocean does not affect the user. The dome around the city also helps to protect those within from the pressure as well."

"How long can I breath with this?" She asked as she fit it over her mouth and nose experimentally. It seemed to fit fine but she suspected that the device would become increasingly uncomfortable to wear the longer it stayed on her face.

"For as long as we are there. It will filter the oxygen from the water around you as you breathe. Are you ready?" he asked gesturing to the Zeta tubes.

Tori nodded, briefly glancing at the tight wetsuit she'd donned for this expedition. The legs and sleeves of it came to an end just above her joints and she wondered how foolish she would seem if she asked for flippers. She decided against asking however since she had a feeling she would look pretty funny going around Atlantis in scuba flippers.

After a quick goodbye to Megan and Connor, and getting her breathing mask properly situated on her face (It wouldn't do for it to slip off and she really didn't want to endure the horrible sensation of drowning), she and Kaldur stepped through the Zeta tubes and the sudden sense that her equilibrium was thrown off came over her. Now Tori considered herself a fairly decent swimmer, but with her feet suddenly no longer touching the ground she floundered to get her bearings. If the half concealed smile on Kaldur's face was anything to go by, the sight must've been pretty amusing.

"Shut up." She said hotly when she managed to right herself.

"My apologies. For a moment I was reminded of the saying 'a fish out of water' and thought there was some irony to the situation." His face was schooled to calm but Tori could see that he was still laughing at her on the inside.

"For all intensive purposes I'm a non-fish into water." She said dryly as she looked around for something that would divert the topic from her clumsy ability to stay righted underwater. When she actually noticed her surroundings she was pleasantly surprised.

The hall where the Zeta tube had deposited them was ten times more beautiful than what she had expected or imagined. She had though the outside would have been something to look at from what brief description Kaldur had told her of his home but the inside was gorgeous too. Underwater paradise didn't even begin to cover the vast walls that gleamed with an ethereal light that Tori was sure had something to do with sorcery. That or luminescent coral.

She didn't even notice that someone new had approached them, entranced as she was by the beauty of the scenery. It was only when the newcomer had cleared his throat did her eyes snap to the familiar form of Aquaman. Startled and aware of his kingly status in the underwater kingdom she tried to bow to him as she would have for royalty on land but this just ended up with more floundering.

"You must be Victoria." Aquaman said with a small smile. She assumed that her antics had amused him just as they had amused his apprentice.

"Um... Yeah." She nodded, bracing herself against one of the coral walls to try and keep from embarrassing herself again. "It's a pleasure to meet you sir." She said brushing off her former fumble.

"And you. Will you be going to the Science Center today? I had discussed with Batman about you visiting because I believe our healers may be able to pinpoint and heal your 'condition'."

Tori blinked and then blinked again as if trying to figure out if she had heard the Atlantian king properly and that water was not logging her ears. Cure. Batman had said nothing about curing, just that they had wanted to do some tests. If they could cure her of spewing up blood every time she used her power that would have been another matter entirely. One that the Dark Knight had failed to mention.

"Batman did not tell you that did her?" the king guessed by the blank look on her face.

"He more or less demanded that I go, only telling me that it was for my own good. I assumed he just wanted information on my abilities." She said with a wave of her hand like she hadn't had a full blown verbal war with Batman and come away unscathed. So far anyway.

"Well the choice is yours whether you want to go or not." Aquaman said in a way that made Tori suspect her was strongly hoping she would listen.

She thought about it for a moment, debating on whether or not the satisfaction of disobeying Batman outweighed her want to be rid of her illness. On one hand she could use her ability without worrying that she was going to drown in her own blood, on the other hand... what was she thinking she wasn't going to give up the chance to live a bit longer just because she didn't like some old man's attitude. He dressed up like a bat on a nightly basis of goodness sake. But just to make it seem as if she wasn't agreeing entirely, just to spite him, she seemed reluctant. "I suppose it couldn't hurt to try." She said with a shrug. She had a feeling she wasn't fooling either Kaldur or Aquaman but she doubted they would mention anything to Batman.

"I will escort you there then." Kaldur said and gave a short salute to his king before he motioned for Tori to follow him.

She did her best to keep up with him, but Kaldur had a lifetime of experience when it came to swimming quickly and he outstripped without even realizing that he had done so and she was left behind in the dust, well bubbles. The thing that amazed her most was that he was only swimming at what she guessed was a casual pace, she would hate to have to be in a race with him where he was actually trying. She watched him swim away for a long moment before she decided to call out to him.

"Um... Kaldur!" She called as she swam, albeit slowly, in the direction he had been going. He turned and she saw his eyes widen when he realised she was not right behind him. It only took him a few seconds to get back to where she was and he gave her an apologetic smile.

"My apologies, I forgot that it would be difficult for you to keep up with me." He said and she couldn't help but laugh a bit.

"It's alright. I don't exactly have webbed feet or hands so I'm pretty slow." She said with a shrug. Noticing something over his shoulder she moved slightly to get a better view of what she thought she saw even though the movement was a little clumsy. Kaldur noticed her movement and turned just as Tori realised what she was looking at. A girl and a boy were swimming towards them.

She was quick to notice that they looked slightly different than Kaldur, even from this distance she could tell they looked very human, like Aquaman and did not have gills on their necks like the dark skinned Atlantian. As they got closer she realised that they didn't even have fins on their legs like Kaldur had though she had yet to decide if that was just the style of the pants or if Kaldur really did have fins sprouting from his legs.

"Kaldur!" The girl called excitedly when they were close enough. "We did not know you had come back to Atlantis! Why did you not let us know?"

"Tula! Garth!" Kaldur greeted his friends with a smiled and motioned a hand to Tori who waved awkwardly when they noticed her. "This is Victoria. I was asked to bring her to the Science Center because she is to be examined by our healers for a way to cure an illness she has acquired."

"Please don't call me Victoria." Tori put in immediately. "Everyone calls me Tori, or at least I try to get everyone to call me Tori."

"It is nice to meet you V- Um Tori." Tula said taking her hands and smiling at her kindly. Tori couldn't help but smile back.

"Are you on the team of young heroes that Kaldur participates in?" Garth asked curiously and Tori shot a nervous look Kaldur's way, unsure of how she should answer the question. She didn't want to lie, but she didn't exactly want to tell them that she had been in league with the bad guys.

"She is not. Tori is Red Arrow's 'girlfriend' as they say on the surface." Kaldur supplied calmly. "She is under the leagues protection from our enemies that would wish to use her against him."

Tori was relieved when she heard his explanation. She didn't know why but having strangers know she was a villain at one point, even strangers who lived under the sea, made her uneasy. Then again she shouldn't have suspected that Kaldur would tell them such a thing because they were trying to make sure the Shadows didn't know who she was.

"Oh how horrible." Tula said sympathy clear in her eyes. "Don't worry, I have faith in Kaldur's team and the League, they will not allow you to be hurt."

"Umm... thanks." Tori nodded with a smile. She was liking Tula more and more by the second it only sucked that this would likely be the only time she would ever meet the girl.

"We should let you get to the Science Center soon. We do not want to delay you." Garth said after a moment and took Tula's hand. "If you have time when you are done we would love to have your company." He seemed to be speaking more to Kaldur than Tori but she didn't mind he was their friend after all.

"It was no delay. Tori is delaying us more than you would." Kaldur said lightly and Tori scowled at him despite the joking tone he had used. "She is not a very good swimmer."

"I can swim fine!" She protested. "I'm not built to swim at Olympic speeds though. If I was I wouldn't have to go to see your healers!"

The three Atlantians laughed at her outburst and she gave a dejected sigh knowing she really was a horrible swimmer compared to them. Kaldur laid his hand on her shoulder and gave her a good natured smile to show he was teasing which threw her off a bit. He didn't seem the type to tease but she didn't really know him very well either and he seemed more at ease her in his home and with his friends.

They bid goodbye to Tula and Garth and this time when they began to swim Kaldur took hold of Tori's arm to pull her along behind him. They went much faster than what she was used to and though she kicked her feet behind her she had a feeling the action wasn't helping much and that even with her added weight, the Atlantian was having little trouble pulling her along.

They reached the Science Center in little time and they were greeted by several people who resembled the romantised versions of mermen that Tori was familiar with after watching '_The Little Mermaid_' as a child, except these ones wore clothes over their chests and were talking rapidly to Kaldur in a language she didn't understand. She came to realise that she probably didn't need to know what they were saying or they would have spoken English as Tula and Garth had so she simply allowed them to speak with Kaldur while they led her into the center and to a room that looked like something they would use as a hospital room.

"I am going to have to stay out in the hall Tori." Kaldur said turning to her as she looked around the room. "It is to make you more comfortable they say."

In all honesty she would have been more comfortable if he was to stay with her but she didn't want him knowing to what extent her illness went. So she nodded and swam over to sit on a raised flat rock that she thought was used as an equivalent to an exam table. She heard Kaldur leave the room and looked at the two healers who remained. One was male and the other was female and both smiled at her as if they knew of the nervous pit in her stomach. She had always hated the hospital or anything that resembled one.

"If you would lay back." The female asked in English and Tori obeyed. Laying back on the uncomfortable rock. "You will feel a slight tingle."

Tori frowned and turned her head to see what she meant when a furious tingling sensation started in her chest. The woman's hands were hovering over her abdomen and glowing a bright green color as they came closer to her chest. Tori suppressed a giggle when the tingle turned into a slight tickle and tried to relax knowing that being poked and prodded was hopefully out of the question. They seemed to be using their form of sorcery to determine how they might help her.

The 'tests' they ran took a little while. After the woman had finished whatever she had done with her hands they had Tori explain what she knew of her illness and the medication she used as well as her meta ability. They had her perform simple movements that were a little harder in water than they would have been on land and lastly examined her prosthetic arm if simply out of curiosity because they had never seen such a thing. Tori was grateful it had been made waterproof or she would have been in trouble. By the time she was finally allowed to leave she was more than ready to get out of there.

"You have given us a lot to look at." The male healer said when they had finished. "But we are confident that we can find something to heal you of your malady. We will let the king know as soon as we are sure we can help."

Tori thanked them and then left the room to find Kaldur who was waiting patiently for her in the hallway. She didn't say much to him because she was thinking about what the healers had told her. There was a potential that she could be cured and be able to use her ability without fear of pain. The very idea made her heart seem so much lighter despite everything that was happening at the moment. She laughed in happiness at the news. She had to tell Roy when she got back to Star City. As well as Dinah and Oliver. For once it seemed as if things were finally on her side.

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><p>I'm pretty sure I totally suck at ambiguous chapter endings. I mean I was gonna end it with some hang out time with Tula and Garth but I wasn't sure how I would end that or make it very interesting. So I just ended it with Tori all happy cause I haven't really made her happy much since like chapter five before Dom died.<p>

Thanks so much to hyourin-kusabana, catalinashepard, masqueraderose9, Nao-bou, KiaraDuman, KimKitty, Sparkles of Youthfulness, knoxrox, The Nett-Chan, Katie Loom, kitsune-miko-witch, booklover1498, and Lilyblossom01 for the faves and follows!

**Booklover1498:** Haha yes! She was sent to Atlantis now you know why! Roy didn't really know about her trip to the underwater kingdom it was kind of a last minute thing as you can likely tell. And I know I didn't mention what they had for lunch but it was spaghetti. Not in Atlantis though. They had to go back to the cave cause Tori couldn't exactly eat with that mask on. I'm so glad you like the story! Sorry for the late update!

**NekoKittyNinja: **Sadly I am still working on that one-shot... it will get finished eventually I just want to do it in a way that seems believable for Roy and Dinah. Especially Roy cause it would be in his POV. I'm glad you liked the last chapter and I hope you like this one! Also I always list who faved! I want to make sure they know I appreciate people supporting my story even though I kinda suck at updating sometimes!

**The Nett-Chan:** I updated but not exactly soon I hope you can forgive me. Thanks for your kind words and please keep reading!

**RunningQueenx5****:** I'm sorry for your skeletonness. I likely caused it again so I'm going to ship you a supply of heal and cure and remedy potions to make sure you survive future update waits. I apologize for the horrendous amount of time you had to wait for this one as well. I'm glad the last chapter had an effect on you. I kinda sniffled while writing it and was like. I hope people write this cause I fell like I'm shit at writing mushy scenes. Anna was also kind of based on my sister. She doesn't know when to leave something alone either!

**bRoKEnhEaRTscROsSovEr:** Thanks I hope you love this one too!

**Chances vs Pills: **I know I've said this a lot but... I'm sorry for the wait. For the last chapter and this one. I hope you can forgive me because I know I totally fail and you've been with me since like the beginning and I will cry if you leave me now! I promise on the life of my goldfish that the next chapter will be up by the end of the week because I'm determined to get it out before people decide to form a mob and beat me.

**Music Moon Queen:** They are! It makes me happy! Thanks for your review.

**Guest:** I know I fail at life. I'm sorry and I wish I knew your pen name so I could apologize further but I don't so I'll send you cyber cookies with my mind and hope you get them. please forgive my tardiness.

I apologize again for my fail. but I PROMISE PROMISE PROMISE to get the next chapter out by the end of next week at the latest. I'm going to start writing it tonight after I consult with someone about how I'm going to format the next chapter. Please let me know how you guys liked this one!

Also I was thinking of maybe going back and re-writing some of the past chapters or even doing a revamp of the story cause as I re-read it the other day I realised there was so much more I could have put in and explored in the past chapters like the start of Roy and Tori's relationship. I feel like it kinda just... I dunno happened and there really wasn't any effort put forth on my behalf. An the flip side I could also do a series of "Deleted Scenes" that explore things that have happened in the past that I hadn't put in but I wanted to ask you guys which you thought would be better.

SO who wants to see a flash of what happens next? I do!

**Next time:** It's everyone's favorite bird's turn to go on babysitting duty. Being around the same age as the kids at Tori's work he blends in pretty well. But things are going down hill when Tori gets a message from someone she's been hoping and dreading to hear from.

**EDIT: **Also guys I totally forgot but I'm getting close to a hundred reviews! If I can get a hundred I'll put up a picture of Tori! Also the one hundred and FIRST reviewer gets a cameo in the next chapter. So please reveiw guys cause if I get that review AFTER the next chapter is put up the deal is totally off and I'll be using some random character in my arsenal or from the DC comics. I'll still put up a pic of Tori though.


	15. Rockin' Robin

**I know I said end of the week last week but I had some technical difficulties with this chapter. Congrats to Chances vs Pills for getting the character cameo in this chapter. She helped make this chapter a whole lot more fun to write. As I promised I have started a picture of Tori but I've yet to get it finished. Between work, school and writing I haven't had a whole lot of time to draw. Plus I finally got Mark of Athena and I have to finish it before I see anymore spoilers.**

**Disclaimer: I own no rights to Young Justice or DC comics. I do however own Tori/Spade/Nix, and the kids at the rec center. Except Mary. I still don't own her because the slave trade was outlawed. One day, Mary, one day! Also Clover belongs to Chances vs Pills and I'm pretty sure if you tried to steal Clover she'd kill you. So just to be safe don't do it.  
><strong>

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><p>Star City<p>

Tori's Apartment

October 24th 8:07 PDT

The moment Tori stepped out of her apartment building that morning she found that the atmosphere around her felt decidedly... off. Something around her seemed out of place, not quite right. It was weird that feeling that erupted on the back of her neck as she looked around and realized something was missing from her surroundings. Her daily babysitter was nowhere to be seen, which was kind of the point, but she didn't even feel as if someone was watching her and that was a feeling she had started to become accustomed to over the past few weeks. She was always being watched by someone and right now she wasn't.

Mentally she went over the schedule of who watched her and when. Today should have been Robin's turn to watch her. She'd never really spoken to him one on one during his days to become her personal stalker. He preferred to keep an eye on her at a distance, her literal shadow, though she was fairly certain her shadow didn't laugh at her when she would trip over cracks on the sidewalk. She suspected that Batman had something to do with Robin's maintained distance from her, that and whatever had happened during that mental simulation the kids had gone through.

She was pretty sure she wasn't supposed to know the results, in fact all she really knew was that the simulation had gone badly but really who would not notice how the teens were acting afterwards. She hadn't mentioned her observation to anyone because for the most part they had gone back to normal after a short period of complete shock. She didn't want to pry where she wasn't wanted so she kept quite but she had noticed that everyone was even more standoffish with her. Except Robin, who had continued to keep up his regular routine. It now stuck her as odd that this routine had been broken.

Now Tori was unsure. Should she continue on her way to work? Should she call the Cave to ask where Robin was and make sure he really was on duty? What if the Shadows or some other villain got a hold of him while he was waiting for her to leave her apartment? What if- Tori stopped her train of thought abruptly. If she thought like that she'd panic and make things worse if things really had gone bad for Robin. She had to get to work. If the little bird didn't appear soon she'd give Roy or Dinah a call and see what was going on.

Taking a deep breath to calm herself she stepped onto the bus that would take her to the community center. She couldn't help but watch the other occupants of the vehicle with suspicion with the life she was living and now with her babysitter missing she couldn't help but be a little paranoid and hyper vigilance never killed anyone before right? Well at least she hoped not.

It came as a relief when the bus reached her stop and she stepped off of the crowded vehicle onto the street where less people were milling about. She knew the street should have scared her more but at least she had room to run here if it came to that. The center was within sight but before her feet could take her too far in that direction a familiar laugh caught her attention. Only in previous times when she had heard that laugh it had been at a distance, this time it came from behind her.

Turning quickly Tori was surprised and relieved to see Robin standing behind her in civilian clothes grinning like a madman. Well not like a madman, but pretty close.

"You seem pretty wound up." He stated still smiling as he shoved his hands into the black jacket he wore. Tori pursed her lips and crossed her arms over her chest. She couldn't see his eyes because of his sunglasses but she was sure even they were grinning at her.

"Where were you?" She asked. "I was... I could have been killed on my way here." Okay so that sounded selfish, Tor knew that but she wasn't about to tell Batman's protégé that she had been worried about him. He could take care of himself just like the rest of the team could despite his age and size.

"Hey stay whelmed. I had cameras on you the whole way here. If any baddies appeared I would have been there. Besides it's not like the Shadows know your secret ID. If they did they would have attacked by now." He replied with a small chuckle. Tori saw the sense in his words but her mind became immediately stuck on his first sentence.

"Whelmed?" She asked in confusion.

"You know. Not overwhelmed not underwhelmed, just whelmed." He shrugged like it was obvious.

"And this is an actual word?" Tori asked.

"It's in the dictionary." He nodded and Tori made a mental note to look that one up later, just to be sure. "Now come on I'm sure people are wondering where you are."

Right. She had work. She'd almost forgotten because of the little bird in front of her. She gave him a once over. For some reason it was only now that she realised he was wearing civilian clothes instead of his usual Robin attire. She'd never really seen what he wore when he'd followed her before but she assumed it would have been his superhero garb.

"So are you going to shadow me today or walk in with me?" She asked curiously.

"You want me to infiltrate your rec center?" he chuckled but the idea didn't seem to bother him. "Sure why not. It'll be easier to keep an eye on you this way instead of trying to stay out of sight."

Tori smiled at the kid as nodded in the direction of the center and began walking. He seemed pretty nonchalant about the whole thing but she got the feeling he was tired of sitting around on the roof of some building waiting of her to get into some kind of trouble which never really happened. He had probably gotten bored of that whole routine. She would have too if she were him.

The other kids at the center were waiting outside for the doors to be unlocked when Tori turned the corner. Several of them spotted her and ran over to greet her enthusiastically. Mary and her best friend Chris were among those clamoring for her attention as she greeted all of them and tried to get them to settle down. It was one of the older boys Gale who noticed Robin first.

"You new here?" He asked sounding a bit guarded. Tori had managed to hush the others and now all attention had been focused on the black haired boy with the sunglasses. Tori could see some of the older kids looking at him like they were sizing him up. It wasn't unexpected really, not on this side of town where anyone could try to cause trouble.

Robin didn't seem perturbed by it. In fact he seemed to take it in stride and smiled easily at the kids. "Sort of, I'm visiting Tori from Gotham. We're cousins and my dad needed someone to look after me for the day while he was busy."

Tori was surprised to hear the lie come out of his mouth. Not because he was lying but because he'd made a relation between them. That could have been dangerous for him if anyone from the Shadows had known who she was. And still could be if they ever found out. If the Shadows thought she was related to someone from the League that might just spell more trouble for her and him. However the lie seemed to make the other kids relax. A few looked over to her for conformation and she nodded schooling her face into a believable smile.

"Right. Everyone this is... Robert." She pulled the first name that sounded like Robin out of her head, just so it would be easier for her to remember. "He's just here for today so be nice alright. It's not often I get to have visits from my family."

The other children eagerly agreed and Tori opened the doors to the building so they could search out their favorite games or sports equipment. For a good ten minutes the building was engulfed in a frenzy of shrill yells and scrambling to get to the best equipment and Tori had to break up a couple of arguments before everyone settled down and made their way to the basketball court at the back of the center.

"Is it always like that?" Robin asked when they were outside. He seemed amused at Tori's hassled appearance.

"Not all the time. Most mornings are quiet, not many kids are around, they kind of come and go as they please and most have school... but they all like to play hooky once in a while." Tori said as she did a mental count of which kids were here that day. "And usually there is more than one staff member at a time but Mark, the head of the center; likes to be late when he thinks things won't be busy."

"Isn't that a bit irresponsible?" Robin asked incredulously.

"This coming from you... How old are you thirteen? You run around in a monkey suit fighting thugs and criminals with a bunch of other kids." Tori snorted.

"You do it too." He pointed out.

"I never said I was responsible either, have you seen my record?"

He snorted and turned back to watch a game of basketball that seemed to be a free for all between five boys. No one seemed to be winning and for a while the ball was just being thrown around like it was some kind of grenade and they were trying to blow up the net.

For a while the two just sat at a bench on the sidelines of the various games going on. Three girls were off to the side playing double-dutch while trying to avoid the boys on the court. Mary had conned Chris into playing a game of Jacks she had brought along with her from home. A few others were cheering the boys on the court on, preferring not to get involved in the game because it was starting to get rough.

"Tori come play!" One of the boys called at last when she shouted for them to stop rough housing and play a fair game. She sighed and got off of the bench, looking down at Robin.

"You wanna play?" She asked. Even with the shades she could tell the idea tempted him.

"Maybe not right now." He replied with a shrug.

"Why?" She wasn't going to let him off that easily. "It's just a game of basketball. You're not going to have any fun sitting around doing nothing all day."

He seemed to think it over but still shook his head. "I can't get distracted on a mission. Batman-"

"Well it's a good thing you're not Batman." She abruptly cut across him which seemed to surprised him and felt it was her turn to grin. "Come on Rob. You're a kid, act your age once in a while. It's not going to kill you to have a little fun."

She wasn't sure what was going on in his head but after a brief moment of hesitation he grinned and ran past her to the court where the boys were waiting for her.

"Are you coming or what!?" Robin called over and she laughed as she walked to them and sorted out the teams. She made sure she and Robin were on different teams because it would have been unfair to gang up on the others who didn't have extensive training from Black Canary or Batman. The game lasted a while, and Robin's team was winning even though he seemed to be holding back for the sake of the other kids. The ball went back and forth between kids and soon even Tori was trying to catch her breath and called a time out. The winded children looked a bit disappointed but left to go get drinks from the water fountain as Tori collapsed on the bench she had vacated earlier.

The blare of her cell phone ringing caught her off guard and she nearly fell off of the bench in surprise. She fished the device from her pocket and looked at the caller ID but the number didn't display and she frowned. The only people who knew her number had already been programmed into her phone so she would always know who was calling. Suspicious she hit the 'talk' button and held the device to her ear.

"Hello?" she asked cautiously.

For a few seconds the line was silent before a familiar voice spoke. Tori would have been ecstatic but for the words that had been spoken. "They know." The line went dead directly afterwards. It was only two words, but those two words were enough to cause Tori's blood to freeze. An uncomfortable weight settled on her chest and she nearly dropped her phone.

"Tori?"

She didn't realised Robin was talking to her until he pinched her side roughly and waved his hand in her face. She looked down at him, noticing the small frown on his face and the way his eyebrows were pulled together as if he was concerned of her. She had to pull herself together. The weight on her chest made it hard for her to breath but she managed to take a shuddering breath and clear her head somewhat. They had to get out of here.

"We have to go." She said to him quietly so the other children wouldn't hear. He seemed to be confused but nodded. As if on cue Tori saw Mark step outside and she waved him over.

The man was large, towering over both Tori and Robin and his skin was tanned like he'd spent his entire life out in the sun. If he wanted to he could probably kill a man with a punch but despite his appearance Mark smiled and waved good-naturedly as he walked over.

"Mark I hate to do this but I have to leave early." She said trying to keep her tone even and not sound terrified. "My cousin here said he isn't feeling well and I don't want the other kids to catch what he has. I have to take him home while his dad is out."

If Mark suspected something his face didn't show it, even though he'd never heard Tori ever mention that she had family. Cousins or otherwise. He looked down at Robin who was quick enough to screw his face up in an expression of sickness. It was pretty convincing, even Tori would have bought it had she not known he was faking it.

"I see what you mean. Alright take him home. Feel better son." He pat Robin on the shoulder consolingly as Tori put a arm around her 'sick' cousin to guide him out of the area. As soon as they were out of sight of the other kids and of Mark, Tori let her arm fall and she looked around the as if making sure they really were alone.

"What's going on?" Robin asked his voice serious. His expression now was blank but his mind was trying to work out what had gotten her so riled up that she felt the need to leave.

"I got a call." She held up her phone which was still tightly clutched in her hand. "There was no ID or number but whoever it was just said 'They know' and hung up. I think the Shadows know about me." She didn't feel the need to tell him that it had been Cheshire on the phone because not only would he think that it might be a trap (and she was sure it wasn't) but then he would have reason to wonder why Cheshire was in contact with her. She didn't need everyone being suspicious of her all over again when she was just starting to get them to like her. At least right now they didn't need to know, she was sure they'd find out later when they looked into her caller logs or if Batman had been tracing her phone conversations like she suspected he did, but right now her only concern was getting out of here in one piece.

"We'll have to contact the League." He said pulling out a small device that looked like a phone but produced a holographic computer that the boy tapped on quickly with one hand. "I'll notify Black Canary and both Arrows as well."

She was kind of impressed to see a boy his age be able to take control of the situation so swiftly. She wouldn't have even thought to call the League, only get out of Star City as fast as she could. Seeing him keep his head in this situation calmed her considerably and she began thinking about this like it was one of her old missions where things hadn't turned out the way she had wanted.

"We'll have to assume that the Shadows are already out looking for me. My apartment is compromised, so is the center and anyplace linked to Roy. But most of my equipment is at the apartment and so is my safe. All of the items I have yet to return are in there." She said. They needed those items to stay out of the hands of the Shadows, if not for Tori's pride then because of what the Shadows had planned for them. Robin seemed to realize this too. They needed to go back to the apartment; they couldn't wait for back up either because the longer they waited the more likely it was that someone had already found it.

"Right then... Let's go."

They arrived at her apartment after on foot. They had agreed that if an assassin found them on a bus then not only would they be trapped but they would be putting civilians in harm's way as well. Tori didn't really want to feel responsible for the loss of another person's life again so they opted to walk. In actuality they ran as fast as their feet could carry them and it was lucky that Tori didn't live far from the center or they would have had to resort to public transportation to get to her apartment in as little time as possible.

"I'll go inside first." Robin declared pulling a birdirang out of his utility belt that he had fastened across his chest at some point during their run. Tori would have protested, she wanted to believe that she had more experience of assassins, but she knew he'd probably survive longer than she could against whoever they had sent after her. He'd been training to catch bad guys for far longer than she had. So instead she just nodded and pressed her back against the wall next to her door so she could look down the hallway to see if anyone was coming.

She watched Robin go in and for several silent and breathless minutes she waited, fully expecting to hear the fall of a body or for a fight break out. But no such thing happened and Robin poked his head out of the door and gave her a small reassuring smile. She let out the breath she was holding and smiled back before she followed him into her small apartment and immediately made her way to her room. Things looked the same as she left them, nothing had been disturbed which was a good sign that no one had yet come to find her.

Quickly as she could while still being quiet she found her old pack and a duffle bag and threw clothes and other necessities into the pack. She didn't really look at what she threw in, aside from her Nix garb which she carefully folded and tucked into the bottom of the pack. When she was done with that she opened up her safe and piled everything in it into the duffle bag as carefully as she could. Several of the more fragile artifacts were wrapped in cloth or clothes to avoid having them break. It was quick work, only a few of the artifacts were left to return. She and Black Canary had been busy returning them going out almost every night to get the majority returned. There were only fifteen left.

When she was done in her room she moved to the bathroom to gather her toiletries and her stockpile of pills. Due to her agreement to leave her old life behind she had promised to stop contacting the man who made her pills after one last purchase. The amount she had should last her until the League found an alternative to keep her alive but she had to monitor what she took carefully to ensure they lasted long enough. She stuffed the bottles and her toiletries into the top of the duffle bag then zipped it up and slung it over her shoulder. It was then that she noticed how quiet the apartment was.

"Robin?" She called out going to the door of the bathroom. She heard no answer and she frowned, moving out into the tiny living room area. She saw Robin on the floor, unconscious from some kind of blow to the head or neck. He wasn't dead, she could see his chest rise and fall but it didn't really comfort her because whoever could sneak up on the Boy Wonder could definitely sneak up on her.

Movement from near the window caught her eye and she ducked, flattening herself to the ground as a body attempted to run her through with what she thought was a long, wicked looking blade. Rolling back to her feet Tori grabbed a hold of the fallen boy and jumped into the shadowed corner she always kept near the couch. She didn't look back at her would be assassin as she dragged Robin through the shadow and out into an alley outside the building. It wasn't far but it was as far as she could go without straining herself while carrying another person.

"Robin!" she hissed shaking his shoulders when she'd propped him up against the wall. "Robin wake up!"

The boy groaned and his hand moved up to hold his head. His eyes must've opened because he began looking around wildly before he seemed to settle on her face. "So not feeling the aster." He said when he realized what must've happened. Absently Tori made a note to question him on the word aster later.

"We have to get going." She said helping him to his feet. He seemed to steady himself quickly but abruptly pushed her away as a third body came towards them. Tori hadn't gotten a good look at her assassin in the apartment but out in the open she was hard to miss. It was a girl maybe Tori's age or even a couple years younger with pretty brown hair. She wore a one piece turtle necked suit with a belt cinched around her waist. Her combat boots looked heavy and reached up to her knees and Tori suspected that there might be weapons hidden within them. However the thing that unnerved Tori the most was this girl's face as she turned to face her. The girl's face was a mask of blank emotion, her one, visible green eye was as cold and hard as ice the other was covered by some sort of goggle contraption.

Tori watched her flex her hands, the leather of her fingerless gloves stretching as a long steel blade shot out over her sleeve. The blade itself was as long as her forearm and looked menacingly sharp. It was by the weapon that Tori recognized this assassin. She called herself Clover, Jade had spoken about her once, since all assassin's seemed to know one another and all Tori knew about this girl aside from her name was that she never let a target get away and that, as Jade had said 'liked to play with her food'.

Clover advanced on Tori with surprising speed her blade up and poised aiming not for her head or vitals but for her flesh arm. With a muttered curse Tori moved clumsily out of the way, backing up so the blade only just traced a small line in her arm. But Clover kept coming, slashing and stabbing at her as she backed her way deeper into the alley only managing to avoid the attacks by sheer luck.

Tori's heart leapt into her throat as she stumbled back and landed roughly on her side. She had no idea where Robin had gone but she couldn't see him behind the assassin any longer. All of her training seemed to become nothing but a jumble of words and images in her head as she tried to get back to her feet. She couldn't remember the block Canary had taught her just last week, or the throw that Superboy had demonstrated for her.

Clover let her get to her feet before she began her strikes again. Tori knew she couldn't just keep backing up forever so she tried to redirect the blade away from her body. She'd done the same thing with arrows, slapping them off direction with the palm of her hand plenty of times before but lover seemed to anticipate the move and suddenly a sharp pain flared in her hand. A small sadistic smile appeared on Clover's face as Tori cried out, the blade having gone all the way through her palm.

The assassin pulled the blade free of her flesh and struck again, this time at her shoulder. She seemed to know of Tori's fake arm because she had avoided the mechanical limb entirely in her attacks. A dark line was drawn through Tort's shirt as the skin opened up and blood pooled out of the newly made wound. She wanted to scream but bit her lip to retain the sound which became nothing more that a strangled whimper.

"This is why you don't betray the Shadow's" Clover said. Her voice was soft with a slight accent to it that Tori couldn't place. She saw the glint of steel flash again and braced herself for another attack when something flew in front of her. A little red birdirang that sent her head spinning as relief surged though her. Smoke began issuing from the bladed disk and suddenly Tori was aware of Robin beside her. She wasn't sure where he's come from but she was thankful he was there.

"Come on we have to run." He said. There was no use trying to fight while Tori was loosing blood all over the ground. She stumbled to her feet with the help of the little bird, who pulled her out of the way as a blade sliced through the air nest to her ear. Clover couldn't see and so it appeared she was just taking random shots.

Tori let Robin pull her along deeper into the alley, making sudden turns that had even her confused about where in the city they were. Not once did Robin take them onto the street, which was an amazing feat of itself. It was long after Tori had lost her breath that he stopped and allowed her a few gasping breaths before he pushed her toward a plain brick wall.

"Where are we?" She asked leaning against said wall.

"Hide out of Green Arrow's I hope that it's connected to the League Database or we can't get in." He said moving up to the wall. "Close your eyes would you?" He asked and when Tori gave him a confused look he pointed to his glasses. "Retinal scan."

Ah. She obliged and turned her head away to keep an eye on the opening of the alley. She wasn't sure if Clover had followed them but it wouldn't have been hard with the blood trail she'd left behind her. She clutched her shoulder tightly, her injured hand curled into a fist and pressed into her stomach she hadn't lost too much blood but she was starting to feel light headed.

A mechanical voice spoke behind her and suddenly the wall shifted throwing her off balance. She almost fell over but managed to catch herself as she turned to see the wall she'd been leaning against open up to reveal a large room stocked with everything Green Arrow would need. Even some of Red Arrow's equipment was here as well which should have been surprising since Tori knew Roy had made bases of his own in several cities but right now she wasn't sure surprise was an emotion she could handle on top of anything else. Robin motioned for her to go inside before he followed. He was tense and didn't relax at all until the wall behind them had closed up again.

"There's a Zeta tube here." He said as they walked over to the now familiar cylindrical tube. It whirred to life as they stepped in and Robin punched in a few codes on that holocomputer of his.

Tori had to close her eyes as the tube lit up. Spots had flashed in front of her vision and even as she heard her name and number designation be spit out of the tube by the mechanical woman's voice she felt dizzy. There was a hand on her arm and she heard someone call her name before she completely passed out, overwhelmed by the day's events.

* * *

><p>Oh my gosh guys this chapter is like a full page and a half longer than normal. I hope you like it because I'm completely satisfied with how this turned out and we had some Tori and Robin bonding time despite what mean old DaddyBats has to say! I know it might seem like I don't like Batman with the way Tori abuses him in her thoughts and words but that's purely Tori's opinion. I love Batsy. When I was nine I was convinced I was going to become Batgirl and marry him. unfortunately this never happened. I'm still gunning for Nightwing though!<p>

What did you guys think of Clover? Did you like her? Did I do a good job writing her scene? Would you like to see more of her provided I have permission from her wonderful creator? Let me know please! I know I loved her because she's so badass and cool and I'd tap that... uh I mean, *cough* hug... and then die.

So a big thanks to panda1012010, Acchan sakuno sakura, Velocity13, Ambercat999, RaeDawnxx, Fairy Skull, Alice. , sabbs123 and kateygirl7 for you faves and alerts!

**Booklover1498:** Thanks for your review! I updated as promised!

**BookwormStrawberry:** No Black Manta this time. But I'll keep that idea in mind. I am not below kidnappings, torture or killing... as I think I have already proven.

**Nyx'sBlackRose:** Fear not I am not abandoning this story. That would be poor thanks to all of the people like you who have supported me thought the writing process. I hope you liked this chapter! thanks for the review.

**RaeDawnxx:** I'm glad you like it! Thanks for your review!

**Music Moon Queen: **Not quite happy yet and I don't know when or even IF I'm going to introduce a cure. I was thinking maybe but I've yet to decide because I'm as of yet unsure how to end the Story and the Cure plays a big part in that.

**Guest: **Thanks I plan to take this story all the way through to the end.

**Iris: **You reviewed twice so I'll answer both here I'm glad you like the story and I posted as soon as I could so I hope you like the new chapter.

**Chances vs Pills: ** You're mean to be picking on my but it's okay I don't mind. I'm glad you didn't leave me because I would be horribly sad if you had. Thank you SOOOOO much for going along with my cameo request! I had an awesome time writing Clover and I can only hope I did your idea of her justice!

So now, after all that drama we'll be moving into a slightly more cannon plotline where my plot begins to merge with first season Young Justice. I've been following it the whole time but this is where Tori's story begins to merge with the happenings of the team.

**Next Time:** Tori's in the middle of getting used to the idea of living at the cave and having to lay low when out int the city. But things are thrown topsy turvy when she realizes that the Shadows have managed to pull of their plot without her stolen artifacts. And where exactly have the kids gone?


	16. A Quick Update: Please Read

Just a very _very_ quick update! I am so so so so so so soooooo sorry I haven't updated in such a long time. A lot has been going on in my life, and even though I did briefly start another story, it was only in an attempt to get my creative juices flowing. It didn't really work. Life decided to throw some pretty horrible curve balls at me after I last updated, and I kind of lost most of my will to write much of anything and the stuff I did write I thought was crap.

I AM coming back to Smooth Criminal soon though. That I promise on my sparkly Batman shirt. However in order to get myself psyched up about the story again I am rewatching the entirety of Young Justice and ignoring the horrible tear jerking spin at the end of season two. Not only that but I plan to go back and edit past chapters as when I read them a few days ago I realised how many grammar mistakes there are and it bothers me. It won't be a whole lot of editing but I will be adding in some new things and possibly some new chapters? I dunno yet, but if it gets altered too much I'm going to make it as a _new_ story. I'll update soon my lovelies. I do work two jobs now though so please don't heckle me.

Again, really really sorry this isn't a new chapter. I'll give an update on progress again soon…. Or maybe a new chapter? Yes? Maybe… we will see where my rejuvenated plot bunnies decide to take me.


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